DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
DURHAM,  N.  C. 


Rec'cL 


{XLIL^L 


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NORTH  CAROLINA 


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: 


VOLUME  I. 
a- 


EDITED    BY 

Rev.  L.  BRANSON,  A.  M. 


im-»3 


RALEIGH,  N.  C: 

L.  Branson,  Publisher  and  Bookseller. 

1881. 


NOTES. 


1.  It  is  desired  to  preserve  some  of  the  Sermon  Literature  of 
the  State. 

2.  Very  few  Worth  Carolina  Ministers  have  ever  had  any 
Sermons  printed. 

3.  This  volume  is  published  by  subscription,  in  order  to  sell 
it  at  the  lowest  figures. 

4.  The  print,  being  large,  is  well  suited  to  the  aged  and  also 
to  the  young. 

5.  These  are  Sermons  of  living  men  well  known  among  us. 

G.  It  is  designed  to  publish  Volume  II.  when  there  is  sufficient 
demand  for  it. 


July  14th,  18SL 


L,  BRANSON,  Editor. 


Copyright,  1881,  by  j         Edwards,  Broughton  &  Co, 

h   Branson,  Raleigh,  N.  C.  I  Printers,  Raleigh,  N,  C. 


ScK.  R. 

CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 
I. 

IMPORTANCE  OF  BUILDING  UP  A  CHRISTIAN 

CHARACTER,    5 

By  Rev.  L.  S.  Burkhead,  D.  D.,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 

II. 

THE  FIXEDNESS  OF  MORAL  CHARACTER,        .         25 
By  Rev.  R.  L.   Abebnethy,  D.D.,  Rutherford 
College,  N.  C. 

III. 

APOSTASY,       .........        34 

By  Rev.  R.  O.  Babbett,  Statesville,  N.  C. 

IV. 
A  PRESENT  KNOWLEDGE  OF  FUTURE  FELIC- 
ITY,               ....        41 

By  Rev.  B.  Yobk,  D.D.,  Rutherford  College,  N.  C. 

V. 

THE  END  FOR  WHICH  CHRIST  CAME,  ,         .        53 

By  Rev.  John  R.  Bbooks,  Fayetteville,  N.  C. 

VI. 

THE  ONLY  FOUNDATION,  .....         97 

By  Rev.  Solomon  Pool,  D .  D. ,  Gary,  N.  C. 

VII. 

ON  HEAVEN,  .........        79 

By  Rev.  T.  W.  Guthrie,  Rockingham,  N.  C. 

VIII. 
THE  UNREASONABLENESS    AND  SINFULNESS 

OF  MAN'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARDS  GOD,  .        .        90 
By  Rev.  John  S.  Watkins,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 


*H3 


4  Contents. 

PAGE. 

IX. 

THE  HUMAN  BODY .102 

By  Rev.  J.  J.  Renn,  Thomasville,  X.  C. 

X. 

OX  THE     WITNESS  OF  THE  SPIRIT,      .  .116 

By  Rev.  Geo.  W.  Neal,  A.  M.,  Xewbern,  X.  C. 

XL 

CHRISTIAN  HOLINESS, I2S 

By  Rev.  Thos.  S.  Campbell,  Madison,  X.  C. 

XII. 

FUNERAL  OF  FAXXIE  SHERWOOD  YORK,         .       144 
By  Rev.  L.  Branson,  A.  M.,  Raleigh,  X.  C. 

XIII 

COMPLETENESS  OF  CHRIST  AS  A  SAVIOUR,     .       155 
By  Rev.  II.  T.  Hudson,  D.  D.,  Shelby,  X.  C. 

XIV. 

OX  FORGIVENESS.        .......       1G7 

By  Rev.  F.  D.  Swindell,  Kinston,  X.  C. 

XV. 

THE  GRANDEUR  OF  GOD'S  DOMINIONS,      „        .       178 
By  Rev.  Dr.  E.  L.  Perkins,  Newport,  N.  C. 

XVI. 

THE  NEW  COMMANDMENT,      ......      197 

By  Rev.  Frank  H.  Wood,  Newborn,  N.  C. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  SERMONS. 


BUILDING  UP  A  CHRISTIAN  CHARACTER. 

By  L.  S.  Bukkhead,  D.  B.,  of  the  N.  C.  Conference. 


But  ye,  beloved,  building  up  yourselves  on  your  most  holy  faith, 
praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  God,  looking 
•for  the  mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto  eternal  life.— Jude  20:  21. 

This  Epistle  of  Jude  seems  to  have  been  designed 
for  all  the  people  of  God,  in  every  place  and  through 
all  time.  All  are  exhorted  to  contend  earnestly  for 
the  "  faith  which  was  once  delivered  unto  the  saints," 
lest  they  be  carried  away  from  the  truth  by  the  in- 
fluence of  corrupt  teachers  and  false  doctrines,  and 
thus  led  into  sin  and  on  to  ruin.  Jude  then  sets  be- 
fore us  examples  showing  how  God's  judgments 
overtake  and  overthrow  all  who  rebel  against  his 
just  authority  and  the  wise  administration  of  his 
moral  government.  "I  will  therefore  put  you  in 
remembrance,  though  ye  once  knew  this,  how  that 
the  Lord,  having  saved  the  people  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt,  afterwards  destroyed  them  that  believed 
not."  "  And  the  angels  which  kept  not  their  first 
estate,  but  left  their  own  habitation,  he  hath  re- 
served in  everlasting  chains,  under  darkness,  unto 
the  judgment  of  the  great  day."     "Even  .as  Sodom 


6  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

and  Gomorrah,  and  the  cities  about  them,  in  like 
manner  giving  themselves  over  to  fornication  and 
going  after  strange  flesh,  are  set  forth  for  an  exam- 
ple, suffering  the  vengeance  of  eternal  fire."  In  or- 
der to  prevent  all  to  whom  this  Epistle  is  addressed 
from  being  overthrown  and  destroyed,  to  prompt 
them  to  the  abandonment  of  error  and  sin,  and  to 
urge  them  to  the  cultivation  of  practical  godliness, 
in  order  that  they  might  "  grow  in  grace  "  and  at 
last  receive  an  "abundant  entrance  into  the  everlast- 
ing kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ," 
our  author  urges  the  exhortation  of  the  text. 

It  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to  build  up  and  maintain 
a  pure  and  consistent.  Christian  character,  and  thus  ex- 
hibit the  excellency  of  the  Gospel,  glorify  God  and  bless 
the  ivorld. 

The  text  calls  attention  to  the  importance  of  the 
construction,  growth,  maturity  and  stability  of  individ- 
ual Christian  character,  embracing  the  design  of 
personal  salvation,  blessing  the  world  by  a  holy  in- 
fluence and  manifesting  God's  wisdom,  mercy  and 
love,  in  the  Gospel  of  his  Son,  in  the  eyes  of  man- 
kind. Every  human  being  is  building  up  a  char- 
acter of  some  sort — every  one  must  build,  every  one 
is  building.  Each  one  must  work  out  his  own  des- 
tiny. Each  one  should  work  out  his  own  destiny 
with  a  firm  reliance  on  the  truth  that  "  God  works 
in  him,"  if  he  would  be  pure  and  holy  here  and 
happy  and  glorious  hereafter.  The  character  which 
a  man  builds  should  be  founded  on  "  the  Rock," 
rise  in  strength  and  beauty,  stand  secure  and  firm 


.'Christian  Character.  7 

■amid  the  storms  of  earth  and  time,  and  receive  the 
approval  of  God.  No  man  can  work  out  his  own 
destiny,  either  for  weal  or  woe,  without  influencing 
the  destiny  of  others.  "  No  man  liveth  to  himself 
and  no  man  clieth  to  himself."  No  man  lives  alone 
who  obeys  God,  No  man  perishes  alone  who  disobeys 
God.  In  other  words,  no  man  can  "  work  out  his 
own  salvation  "  without  working  for  the  salvation 
of  others  ;  nor  can  any  man  labor  to  advantage  for 
the  spiritual  and  eternal  welfare  of  others,  without 
being  employed  at  the  same  time  in  the  cultivation 
of  personal  holiness.  "  Without  faith  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  please  God."  Therefore  we  must  "have  faith 
in  God" — be  in  the  faith — living  by  faith,  as  an  ac- 
tive operating  principle,  urging  us  on  in  the  perform- 
ance of  good  works,  if  we  would  labor  successfully 
for  ourselves  and  others.  Should  we  attempt  to  "pull 
the  moto  out  of  our  brother's  eye"  while  a  "beam 
is  in  our  own  eye,"  we  would  act  unwisely,  per- 
vert the  gospel  plan  and  bring  ourselves  under  the 
disapprobation  of  God  ;  and  at  the  same  time  fail  to 
help  ourselves  or  benefit  our  brother.  Hence  our 
first  work  is  to  look  well  to  our  own  personal  salva- 
tion. Be  sure  that  we  are  right ;  sure  that  we  have 
""  passed  from  death  unto  life  ;"  sure  that  the  "Spirit 
of  God  bears  witness  with  our  spirits  that  we  are  the 
children  of  God ;"  and  sure  that  our  works  demon- 
strate the  correctness  of  our  faith  :  for  then,  and  then 
only,  will  our  efforts  bless  mankind  and  lead  sinners 
to  Christ.  Our  own  souls  are  of  vastly  more  impor- 
tance to  us  than  all  the  souls  of  all  the  ^vorld  besides. 


8  North  Carolina  Sermoks. 

We  should  never  for  a  moment  lose  sight  of  theif 
priceless  value,  their  fearful  responsibility  and  their 
imminent  danger ;  but  solemnly  pondering  the 
great  truth  that  "  every  one  of  us  must  give  account 
of  himself  to  God,"  we  should  prosecute  the  work 
assigned  us,  "doing  all  to  the  glory  of  God"  and 
"  looking  for  the  mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
unto  eternal  life."  Thus  we  shall  receive  the  divine 
blessing,  and  through  our  instrumentality  the  world 
shall  rejoice  and  heaven  sing. 

"  Building  up  yourselves  on  your  most  holy  faith." 
The  system  of  faith  upon  which  we  are  exhorted 
to  build,  is  the  "  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God"— the 
great  plan  of  recovering  mercy  revealed  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  This  is  the  grand  system  of  faith  Jude' 
tells  us  "  was  once  delivered  to  the  saints,"  and  is- 
justly  called  a  system  of  "  most  holy  faith."  It  is  a* 
divine  system-— God  is  its  author.  Like  its  author, 
it  is  perfect  and  holy.  It  is  the  most  perfect  system 
that  human  intelligence  ever  contemplated,  or  that 
the  great  God  could  have  given  to  man.  Infinite 
goodness  could  not  have  prompted,  and  infinite  wis- 
dom could  not  have  devised  less  than  the  most  per- 
fect system.  If,  therefore,  we  allow  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  to  be  a  grand  system  of  divine  origin  and 
procurement,  for  the  restoration  of  fallen  man  to  the 
forfeited  favor  and  image  of  God,  and  the  very  best 
that  infinite  skill  could  have  provided,  it  will  follow 
that  this  gospel  has  claims  upon  us  immeasurably 
higher  than  any  or  all  other  systems  can  pre- 
sent.    The  reason  is  obvious.      God  is  our  creator 


Christian  Character.  2 

and  glorious  benefactor.  "  Every  good  gift  and 
■every  perfect  gift  is  from  above,  and  cometh  down 
from  the  Father  of  lights,  with  whom  is  no  variable- 
ness, neither  shadow  of  turning."  We  belong  to 
God — soid,  body  and  spirit.  He  not  only  made  us, 
but  also  bought  us  with  a  price,  no  less  precious 
than  the  "blood,  of  Christ."  Hence  the  Almighty 
has  an  indisputable  right  to  furnish  a  system  of  lav/ 
for  our  government,  mark  out  a  course  of  conduct 
for  us  to  pursue,  authoritatively  command  us  to  walk 
therein  ;  and  if  we  choose  to  set  at  defiance  his  right- 
eous will,  to  punish  us  as  our  deeds  demand.  God 
has  not  only  the  right  to  make  these  claims  upon 
us,  but  it  is  in  the  highest  sense  proper  according  to 
the  clearest  principles  of  reason  and  equity,  that 
these  claims  should  be  acknowledged  and  obeyed  by 
us,  and  that  he  should  have  the  service  of  all  our 
powers  through  the  whole  eternity  of  our  existence. 
Hence  St  Paul  says:  "I  beseech  you,  therefore, 
brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present 
your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  hoi}",  acceptable  to 
God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service?"  This  system 
of  "  most  holy  faith  "  reveals  the  source  and  meas- 
ure of  moral  obligation.  So  soon,  therefore,  as  we 
k  now  what  God  requires  of  us,  we  are  bound  to  obey, 
from  the  heart  and  implicitly,  all  his  commandments. 
Obedience  to  his  will  is  righteousness.  Disobedience 
is  wickedness.  One  course  of  action  is  right  and 
leads  to  heaven ;  the  other  is  wrong  and  conducts  to 
hell.  We  are  moral  agents,  and  may  obey  or  diso- 
bey.    This  system  of  holy  faith  is  presented  to  man. 


10  "North  Carolina  Sermons; 

His  mind  is  illumined  and  his  heart  is  touched  by 
the  grace  and  Spirit  of  God,  and  duty  and  interest 
alike  press  him  to  embrace  this  great  salvation  and 
live  forever.  If  he  heed  the  voice  of  God,  the  dic- 
tates of  enlightened  reason,  the  pleadings  of  personal 
interest,  and  receive  and  obe}^  the  will  of  God,  all 
shall  be  well.  If  he  refuse  them,  by  his  own  volun- 
tary act  he  seals  his  own  doom  ;  and,  deep,  dark 
and  ruinous  though  it  be,  God  is  just,  and  his  wis- 
dom and  glory  are  manifested  in  the  impenitent 
sinner's  destruction. 

By  faith  man  lays  deep  down  upon  the  immuta- 
ble basis  of  eternal  truth — the  truth  that  "God  is  in 
Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself" — the 
solid  foundation  of  Christian  character.  Embracing 
Christ  as  the  only  saviour  of  sinners,,  he  plants  him- 
self firmly  on  "  the  Rock  of  Ages,"  the  sure  founda- 
tion, and  by  the  exercise  of  living  faith,  winch  de- 
rives its  efficiency  from  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  man 
becomes  "  a  new  creature'7  by  the  regenerating  power 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  henceforth  is  able  to  "live  by 
faith" — that  faith  which  "sweetly  works  by  love 
and  purifies  the  heart."  The  foundation  of  Chris- 
tian life  and  character  being  thus  securely  laid,  the 
building  must  rise  through  the  blessing  of  God  and 
the  efforts  of  the  builder.  All  who  have  thus  laid 
the  foundation,  are  affectionately  addressed  by  our 
text  as  "beloved"  as  brethren  in  Christ  The  senti- 
ment is  "  ye"  who  have  this  faith,  who  have  received 
the  Gospel,  and  who  are  still  grounded  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  truth,,  having  resisted  successfully  the  at- 


Christian  Character.  11 

tacks  of  sin,  Satan  and  false  teachers,  take  warning 
from  the  example  of  others  who  have  fallen  from 
grace,  and  remember  that  although  you  have  begun 
to  build,  your  house  is  as  yet  incomplete — that  you 
are  still  in  a  world  of  sin  and  "  there  are  many  ad- 
versaries." The  great  burden  and  heat  of  the  day 
are  still  before  you.  The  great  battle  of  life  must 
be  fought  before  you  can  be  crowned  a  victor.  The 
building  must  still  continue  to  go  up  to  completion 
before  the  cap  stone  can  be  laid  in  its  place. 

True,  you  ma}r  conquer;  but,  then  you  may  be  con- 
quered. God  is  for  you,  and  his  grace  is  sufficient. 
If  you  employ  this  grace  and  do  your  duty,  all  will 
be  well.  But  if  you  fail  in  duty  and  perseverance, 
you  will  perish.  There  is  onhr  one  way  of  success ; 
that  is,  improve  what  you  have  received.  The  Mas- 
ter says,  "occupy  till  I  come."  You  have  faith  in 
Christ — build  upon  this  all  the  principles  and  graces 
of  the  Gospel  system,  and  you  shall  never  be  'put  to 
shame.  But  should  you  fail  in  this  work,  all  who 
pass  by  will  begin  to  mock,  saying,  "this  man  began 
to  build  and  was  not  able  to  finish." 

"  Building  up  yourselves."  The  figure  is  architec- 
tural. The  improvement  and  completion,  or  the 
growth  and  maturity  of  Christian  character,  is  rep- 
resented by  the  rearing  up  and  completion  of  a 
building  upon  its  proper  foundation.  AVhen  an  ed- 
ifice is  to  be  erected,  the  architect  first  conceives  and 
then  drafts  the  design.  He  instructs  the  builder  in 
thepZcm,  selects  the  material  and  directs  how  this 
material  is  to  be  incorporated  into  the  superstruc- 


12  North  Carolina  Sermons-. 

ture,  so  as  to  fill  up  the  draft  and  complete  the  de- 
sign. God  is  the  architect  of  Christian  character. 
He  has  conceived  and  drafted  the  design,  given  all 
necessary  instruction,  furnished  all  necessary  mate- 
rial, and  so  thoroughly  prepared  us  for  the  work  of 
building  that  there  can  be  no  excuse  for  us  should 
we  refuse  to  build,  use  improper  material,  or  should 
our  house  fail  to  receive  the  approval  of  the  Great 
Architect.  Man  is  a  moral  agent,  and  the  divine 
plan  is  placed  before  him  in  all  its  grandeur  and 
beauty.  All  the  material  is  selected,  marked  and 
numbered,  and  God  teaches  him  to  build  wisely. 
While  this  is  true,  there  are  other  "so-called"  archi- 
tects ;  and  these  propose  other  plans,  the  use  of  other 
materials,  and  urge  us  to  build  for  other  objects. 
Satan  and  false  teachers  are  forever  thrusting  new  de- 
signs before  our  minds  and  hearts,  and  telling  us  that 
we  need  not  be  so  particular  about  the  foundation, 
the  material  to  be  used,  or  the  precise  character  of 
the  model  after  which  our  building  should  be  fash- 
ioned. But  we  should  be  wise  to  comprehend  the 
divine  plan,  and  to  examine  and  approve  the  divine 
material.  While  God  teaches  us. to  build  of  "gold, 
silver  and  precious  stones" — that  these  are  neces- 
sary to  the  construction  of  a  beautiful  and  substan- 
tial edifice — Satan  and  false  teachers  would  persuade 
us  to  build  of  "wood,  hay  and  stubble,"  and  thus 
deprive  us  of  the  approval  of  God.  If  man  should 
build  in  opposition  to  the  will  of  God,  his  labor  shall 
be  lost  and  his  building  fall  into  hopeless  ruin;-;  ior, 
"  except  the  Lord  build  the  house  they  labor  in  vain 


Christian  Character.  13 

that  build  it."  Christian  character  is  the  house 
completed  or  in  process  of  completion,  according  to 
the  design  of  God. 

A  man  may  be  thought  to  possess  all  the  elements 
and  ornaments  of  Christian  character,  when,  in  fact, 
he  may  be  destitute  of  the  first  principles  of  saving 
faith.  The  estimation,  therefore,  which  the  world 
places  on  a  man  does  not  always  designate  his  real 
worth.  A  good  name  is  desirable,  and  may  be  earn- 
estly sought  when  sought  in  harmony  with  correct 
principle.  The  reputation  which  should  be  sought 
is  the  pure  and  sweet  light  that  radiates  from  a  pure 
heart  and  a  virtuous  life.  This  is  the  "true  renown 
begun  on  earth,  and  lasting  in  the  skies."  But  in 
this  fallen  world  and  wicked  generation,  praise  is 
not  always  bestowed  where  it  is  due.  Oftentimes 
.men,  whose  characters  are  pure  and  good,  are  neg- 
lected and  slandered  and  the  world,  spurns  them  as 
unworthy.  Hence  many  of  the  great  and  good  live 
in  obscurity,  while  the  base  and  mean  are  exalted  to 
place  and  power.  Such  is  the  baseness  of  the  carnal 
mind — and  there  are  so  many  carnal  minds — that 
few  escape  its  wicked  and.  slanderous  attacks. 

"Be  tliou  chaste  as  ice,  as  pure  as  snow, 
Thou  shalt  not  escape  calumny." 

And  oftentimes 

"  Envy  doth  invade 
Works  breathing  into  immortality,  and  cast 
Upon  the  fairest  piece  the  greatest  shade.*' 

Blessed  be  God,  the  character  of  the  truly  good 
man  shall  ultimately  triumph  and  be  "had  in  ever- 


14  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

lasting  remembrance."  Then,  what  though  his  good 
name  be  filched  from  him,  and  he  should  go  down 
to  his  grave  beneath  a  cloud  of  reproach  !  Even  in 
that  case  the  light  radiating  from  the  grand  princi- 
ples of  the  Gospel  which  he  possessed  and  exempli- 
fied in  life,  would  break  forth  from  the  tomb,  dispel 
the  clouds  of  slander,  command  the  admiration  and 
guide  the  footsteps  of  coming  generations.  Jesus 
Christ  was  the  perfect  model,  after  which  our  charac- 
ter should  be  fashioned.  Yet  the  church  and  the 
world  united  in  heaping  reproaches  upon  his  name 
and  in  condemning  him  to  the  cruel  death  of  cruci- 
fixion. But,  a  glorious  light  breaks  forth  from  the 
cross  and  sepuleher,  which  is  driving  error,  preju- 
dice, malice  and  sin,  like  vapors  before  the  rising 
sun.  And  now,  in  mid-heaven  and  full  orbed  glory 
he  shines,  and  to  the  brightness  of  his  redeeming 
light  the  eyes  of  the  world  are  directed  ;  and  thus 
glorious  light  shall  triumph  over  darkness  until 
"heaven's  last  thunder  shakes  the  world  below  " ; 
and  then  it  shall  flame  up  from  deep  vaults  of  death 
to  the  gates  of  glory  ;  and  focalized  there,  illumine 
the  city  of  God  with  fadeless  glory  forever.  And  the 
same  principles  of  eternal  truth  that  make  Jesus 
Christ  so  glorious  in  the  eyes  of  men  and  angels, 
shall  bless,  exalt  and  glorify  in  the  degree  of  their 
possession,  all  the  faithful  and  holy  who  follow  in 
Ins  footsteps.  But  a  reputation  without  the  holy 
principles  of  troth  and  purity  to  save  it  from  decay 
and  rottenness,  is  an  insignificant  myth — the  shifting 
shadow   of  a  crazy  building    whose    foundation  is 


Christian  Chaeactee.  15 

sand;  and  when  the  storms  arise  and  the  floods  come, 
this  rickety  house  shall  fall  into  hopeless  ruins  and 
shed  no  halo  of  glory  upon  the  world,  but  lead  others 
to  the  eternal  shades  of  darkness  and  death.  Yet, 
hundreds  and  thousands  are  pursuing  this  ignis 
fatuus,  without  regard  to  the  great  principles  of  vir- 
tue and  truth.  0!  what  folly!  It  is  like  flying 
from  the  proud  temple  of  security,  when  the  tem- 
pests are  gathering,  to  perish  in  the  pelting  hail; 
or,  like  forsaking  the  gallant  ship  that  has  braved  a 
thousand  storms,  to  contend,  without  so  much  as  a 
single  plank,  with  the  angry  deep.  But  to  fallen 
ambitious  man,  there  is  a  bewitching  spell  even  in 
an  unsubstantial  name.  Pollock  sings  of  this  "fleet- 
ing phantom," — 

"Her  voice  was  sweet  to  mortal  ears. 
And  touched  so  pleasantly  the  strings  of  pride 
And  vanity,  which,  in  the  heart  of  man, 
Were  ever  strung'  harmonious  to  her  note, 
That  many  thought,  that  to  live  without  her  song^ 
Was  rather  death  than  life." 

In  view  of  this  evil  tendency  of  human  nature., 
how  necessary  that  all  should  seek  the  grace  of  God 
and  labor  to  build  up  such  a  character  as  heaven 
will  own  and  bless! — such  characters  as  shall  de- 
serve the  approbation  of  all  good  men.  The  great 
principles  of  Christian  character  may  be  learned 
from  a  careful  study  of  the  word  of  God.  Paul  says: 
"  Whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are 
honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever 
things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  what- 
soever things  are  of  good  report;    if  there  be  any 


18  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

virtue  and  if  there  be  any  praise,  think  on  these 
things."  Here  the  Apostle  presents  as  subjects  for 
deep  investigating  thought,  all  the  principles  of 
truth,  honesty,  justice,  purity,  and  the  things  that  are 
lovely  and  of  good  report,  in  one  brief  sentence.  What 
fields  for  thought  open  out  before  the  mind  !  What 
is  truth?  How  is  truth  to  be  applied  in  the  work  of 
human  effort  and  salvation?  What  is  honesty? 
How  is  it  to  be  exhibited  in  all  our  relations  with 
God  and  men?  What  are  the  principles  of  justice? 
How  are  we  to  be  just  to  ourselves,  our  fellow-men 
and  to  God  ?  What  are  the  principles  of  purity,  and 
how  are  they  to  shine  with  unclouded  lustre  in  all 
we  think,  fee],  hope,  desire,  imagine  and  say  and  do  ? 
What  are  the  lovely  things?  How  shall  a  man  so 
adorn  himself — his  soul,  mind  and  heart — as  to  be 
beautiful  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  of  all  the  pure  and 
good?  What  things  are  of  good  report f  and  how 
shall  we  think  on  all  these  things,  so  as  to  properly 
develop  and  cultivate  them  in  our  hearts,  lives  and 
influence,  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  man- 
kind ?  Behold,  another  string  of  jewels  taken  from 
the  writings  of  St.  Peter:  "Add  to  your  faith,  virtue: 
and  to  virtue,  knowledge;  and  to  knowledge,  temper- 
ance; and  to  temperance,  patience;  and  to  patience, 
godliness;  and  to  godliness,  brotherly-kindness  ;  and 
to  brotherly  kindness,  charity."  The  Bible  gives 
full  and  specific  directions  in  reference  to  all  these 
great  principles,  virtues  and  graces ;  and  gradually 
unfolds  their  deep  significance,  profound  importance 
and  expanding  glory — as  a  man  thinks,  and  prays? 


Christian  Character.  17 

and  labors  to  incorporate -them  into    his  character, 
each  in  its  appropriate  place  to  shine  out  in  his  life 
in  symmetrical  beauty— all  blending  into  harmo- 
nious completeness.   As  man,  in  earnest  thought,  de- 
vout prayer,  and  patient,  energetic  effort,  ascends 
the  scale  of  moral  excellency,  God  comes  down  to 
his  help  ;  and  thus,  by  the  cooperating  influence  of 
divine  and  human  agency,  man  rises  in  glory  and 
approximates  perfection.     Here  is  another  sentence 
more  grand  and  comprehensive  still  :    "  Thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  Gocl,  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with 
all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,"  and,  "thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."     Here,  all  the  law  and 
the  prophets  /    all  the  graces,  virtues,  beauties  and 
glories  of  Christianity  unite  and  blend  in  the  divine- 
principle  of  love,  and  shine  out  in   this  centre  and 
circumference   of  Christian    duty,   obligation    and 
privilege.     0  !  here  are  broad  fields  for  cultivation  j 
an  infinite  ocean  for  navigation,  and  infinite  depths, 
heights,  lengths  and  breadths  to  be  traveled,  pene- 
trated, scaled  and  measured  by   human  thought! 
"  0  !  the  depths  of  the  riches  both  of  the   wisdom 
and  knowledge  of  God  1"      In  the  light  of  love  the 
building  shines  with  increasing  beauty   and  glory, 
as  it  nears  completion  ;  but  man  must  build  on,  sing 
on  and  shine  on,  as  his  life-work  advances.     In  sun- 
shine and  storm,  in  cold  and   heat,  in  sickness  and 
in  health,  at  home  and  abroad,  in  prosperity  and  in 
adversity,  aye— in  all  and  singular  of  life's  vicissi- 
tudes he  builds  on.     The  activity  of  his  faith,  the 
ardor  and  glow  of  his  love,  the  patience  of  his  hope 


18  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

and  the  song  of  his  joy,  sings  out  upon  the  air,  un- 
der every  stroke  in  the  cause  of  God  and  of  human- 
ity, for  the  encouragement  of  all  who  are  engaged 
in  the  sublime  work.     Let  all  work  on  and  sing  on  I 

"Whatever  tempts  the  soul 
To  loiter  ere  it  reach  its  goal, 
Whatever  syren  voice  would  draw 
Thy  heart  from  duty  and  its  law>, 
O  !  that  distrust,  go  bravely  on," 
Until  the  victor's  crown  be  won, 

"Praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost"  The  influence  and 
operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost  are  necessary  to  the 
successful  completion  of  the  sublime  work  where- 
unto  we  have  been  called.  Without  his  influence 
and  help,  we  cannot  accomplish  anything  that  is 
good.  Though  God  has  given  his  Son  to  die  for  us; 
though  Christ  suffered  the  agonies  of  the  garden 
and  the  death  of  the  cross,  for  our  redemption,  all  is 
vain  unless  the  Holy  Ghost  perform  his  blessed  work 
of  illumination  and  purification  upon  our  minds 
and  hearts  and  lives.  He  must  quicken  our  dead 
souls,  "  convince  of  sin,  of  righteousness  and  of  judg- 
ment." He  must  regenerate  and  sanctify,  bear  wit- 
ness with  our  spirits,  console  and  encourage  our 
hearts;  guide  into  all  truth,  and  "show  us  things 
to  come."  Through  his  blessed  influence  and  power 
we  must  realize  that  the  "  kingdom  of  God  is  not 
meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness  and  peace  and 
joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  He  must  enable  us  to 
"  walk  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord  and  in  the  comfort  " 
of  his   blessed    influences,   and    thus  multiply  our 


Christian  Character.  19 

power  for  good  in  the  world.  He  is  the  divine  living 
source  of  all  the  Christian  graces.  Hence  these 
graces  are  called  the  "fruits  of  the  Spirit."  "  Love,  joy, 
peace,  long-suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith, 
meekness  and  temperance,"  are  all  "fruits  of  the 
Spirit."  He  is  ever  with  his  people  ;  He  "  helpeth 
our  infirmities }i  and  "  maketh  intercessions  for  us 
with  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered."  Now, 
these  divine  influences  and  their  glorious  fruits  are 
given,  through  the  atonement  of  Christ,  to  every 
child  of  God  in  answer  to  prayer.  Prayer  is  essen- 
tially necessary  to  a  saving  interest  iti  the  "system 
of  most  holy  faith."  It  is  a  solemn  duty,  and  also  an 
instrument  for  the  attainment  of  an  end.  Hence,  in 
order  to  secure  the  approbation  of  God,  the  influ- 
ences and  graces  of  the  Ploly  Ghost,  and  to  success- 
fully "add  to  our  faith  "  and  "  build  ourselves  up  " 
in  holiness  of  heart  and  life,  we  must  "pray  in  the 
Holy  Ghost."  The  duty  and  efficacy  of  prayer  is  in 
harmony  with  reason  and  sound  philosophy,  and 
clearly  taught  and  positively  enjoined  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  on  all  men.  "  Prayer  is  the  offering  up 
of  our  desires  to  God,  for  things  agreeable  to  His 
will,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  help  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  with  confession  of  sin  and  a  thankful 
acknowledgment  of  all  his  benefits  to  us  through 
the  blood  of  atonement."  Man  must  desire  the 
things  that  are  in  harmony  with  the  will  of  God,  be- 
cause such  things  are  essential  to  his  highest  good 
and  grandest  development,  in  time  and  eternity. 
He  must  ask  for  these  things  "in  the  name  of  Christ  " 


20  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

because  all  good  must  come  to  him  through  the 
work  of  atonement.  Christ  is  the  only  way  to  the 
Father,  and  his  name  the  only  security  that  will 
enable  us  to  draw  on  the  Bank  of  Heaven.  His 
name  is  "all-prevailing."  Hence  the  sacred  poet 
sings  : 

'I  can  no  denial  take, 
When  I  plead  for  Jesus'1  sake." 

But  in  making  our  appeals  to  God  for  "things  agree* 

able  to  his  will,"  and  in  the  "  name  of  Christ,"  we 

need  and  must  have  the  help  of  the  "  Holy  Ghost." 

No  man  can  "build  himself  up,"  or  even  retain  that 

which    he   already   has,   without   persevering   and 

humble  prayer. 

4 'Prayer  is  the  Christian's  vital  breath, 
The  Christian's  native  air." 

If  the  vitalizing  respiration  of  this  "native  air'5 
should  cease,  the  Christian  would  droop  and  die. 
Hence  he  must  "  pray  without  ceasing."  Sin  must 
be  confessed  and  forsaken.  God's  great  benefits  must 
be  acknowledged  with  grateful  thanksgiving.  Ap- 
proaching the  mercy-seat  with  humility,  sincerity, 
importunity,  and  faith  in  the  atoning  blood  of 
Christ,  with  all  malice  and  envy  and  hatred  aban- 
doned, and  seeking  the  help  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  our 
prayers  shall  be  heard  and  rich  mercy  and  grace 
received.  "  What  things  soever  ye  desire,  when  ye 
pray  believe  that  ye  receive  them,  and  ye  shall  have 
them.  And  when  ye  stand  praying,  forgive,  if  ye 
have  aught  against  any  :  that  your  Father  also 
which  is  in  heaven  may  forgive  you  your  trespasses* 


Christian  Character.  21 

But  if  ye  do  not  forgive,  neither  will  your  father  in 
heaven  forgive  your  trespasses."  0!  how  sad  to  see 
a  man  kneeling  before  the  great  God  asking  for  the 
forgiveness  of  his  sins,  when  his  heart  is  filled  with 
bitterness  and  wrath  towards  his  fellow-man  !  How 
many  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer  with  sin  and  Satan 
in  their  hearts  !  0  !  God5  help  us  to  forgive  that  we 
may  he  forgiven  ! 

"Keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  Gog." 

This  grand  result  is  to  be  accomplished  by  faith- 
fully performing  all  our  duties  ;  patiently  bearing  all 
our  crosses,  trials  and  sufferings  ;  cheerfully  submit' 
ting  to  God's  will  concerning  us  ;  and  by  "  looking 
for  the  mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto  eternal 
life."  Our  duties  to  God,  ourselves,  the  church  and 
the  world  must  be  diligently  and  faithfully  perform- 
ed. We  must  "  trample  under  foot  that  enthusias- 
tic doctrine  "  which  teaches  "  that  we  are  not  to  do, 
good  unless  our  hearts  are  free  to  it."  We  must, 
obey  God,  whether  "  our  hearts  are  free  to  it "  or  not. 
Our  hearts  must  be  compelled  to  do  and  suffer  God's- 
will.  The  will  of  God  is  the  rule  of  life,  and  we  must 
walk  by  this  rule.  The  approbation  of  God  is  not 
merited  by  our  efforts  to  do  his  will ;  but  without 
these  efforts  the  favor  of  God  cannot  be  retained. 
While  good  works  cannot  merit  the  blessings  of 
God's  favor,  they  are  necessary  to  show  that  we  have 
obtained  and  do  noiv  retain  God's  favor.  They  cannot 
go  before  and  justify  us  before  God  ;  but  they  are  ev- 
idences that  we  have  been  justified  by  faith  in  Christ. 

The  tree  is  good  because  it  has  been  grafted  into 

2 


22  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

Christ;  and  good  works  show  that  the  tree  is  alive 
and  bearing  fruit.  If  good  works  cease  in  the  life,  this 
will  prove  that  the  tree  has  been  severed  from  Christ, 
and  is  under  his  curse.  Therefore,  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  keep  our  hearts  and  lives  in  living  connec- 
tion with  the  blood  of  atonement,  that  we  may  "grow 
in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  The  works  we  perform  and  the  sufferings 
we  endure  for  Christ's  sake,  tend  to  keep  us  in  our 
proper  relation  and  place:  show  our  union  with 
Christ,  and  that  we  are  flourishing  in  all  the  vigor 
of  Christian  life ;  and  bearing  fruit  to  the  honor 
and  glory  of  God,  and  blessing  mankind.  Thus, 
"keeping  ourselves  in  the  love  of  God,"  we  increase- 
in  strength  ;  and  assisted  by  the  grace  and  spirit  of 
God,  go  forward  in  the  grand  work  of  "  building  up 
ourselves  on  our  most  holy  faith."  Soon  the  work 
will  be  done,  whether  well  done  or  not.  God  grant 
that  the  cap-stone  may  be  laid  in  its  appropriate 
place,  amid  the  shoutings  of  angels  and  men  ;  and 
then  standing  in  the  "image  and  likeness"  of  Christ, 
the  building  completed,  we  shall  remain  forever 
glorified  and  demonstrate  the  power  of  God  to  save 
from  sin. 

0  !  let  us  all  labor  to  "  keep  ourselves  in  the  love 
-of  God,"  and  exhibit  in  our  lives  the  fruits  and 
graces  of  the  Spirit;  and  thus  call  back  a  lost  race 
to  God  and  heaven  ! 

.  "  Looking  for  the  mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
unto  eternal  life"  This  language  directs  the  mind 
and  heart  to  the  medium  and  channel  through  which 


Christian  Character.  23 

We  may  reach  the  source  of  all  good,  obtain  supplies 
for  life  and  godliness,  and  secure  a  glorious  destiny 
of  eternal  good.  Much  good  may  be  secured  and 
enjoyed  in  this  life.  The  reward  of  Christian  effort 
begins  as  soon  as  we  give  ourselves  to  God.  Virtue 
has  its  reward  in  this  world  as  well  as  the  world  to 
come.  Vice  also  has  its  reward  here  as  well  as  here- 
after. The  way  of  the  "  transgressor  is  hard,"  not 
simply  because  he  will  be  punished  in  eternity  ;  but 
also  because  every  transgression  of  God's  law  is  de- 
veloping and  strengthening  the  evil  that  is- in  and 
over  him  and  lessoning  the  probabilities  of  his  return 
to  God;  while  they  constantly  and  certainly  multi- 
ply the  probabilities  of  his  final  destruction.  He 
that  '"  soweth  to  the  Spirit"  shall  not  only  "  reap 
eternal  life  "  in  a  future  state ;  but  as  he  sows,  he  re- 
ceives the  divine  blessing,  and  harvests  of  spiritual 
good  are  waving  about  him,  and  are  constantly  be- 
ing gathered  even  here.  As  the  Christian,  therefore, 
is  faithful  in  the  discharge  of  all  the  duties  which 
he  owes  to  God  and  man,  he  grows  in  all  the  graces 
and  virtues  of  Christian  character  ;  and  in  the  ratio 
of  his  growth  and  advancement  in  the  service  of  God 
will  be  his  reward  here  and  hereafter.  "The  righteous 
shall  hold  on  his  way,  and  he  that  hath  clean  hands 
shall  be  stronger  and  stronger."  "  The  path  of  the 
just  is  as  the  shining  light  that  shineth  more  and 
more  unto  the  perfect  day."  The  blessed  principles 
3f  the  Gospel  which  have  sustained  and  cheered  the 
man  of  God  as  he  has  been  employed  in  the  wTork  of 
the  Lord  here,  amid  life's  vicissitudes,  will  be  present 


2-1       .  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

to  give  him  hope,  peace  and  joy  in  the  hour  of  death,- 
He  shall  see  with  inexpressible  delight,  over  the 
arch-way  of  the  gate  of  death,  in  letters  of  golden 
beauty,  the  thrilling  song  of  glorious  triumph  :  "0  I 
death,  where  is  thy  sting  I  0  !  grave  where  is  thy 
victory  !  The  sting  of  death  is  sin,  the  strength  of 
sin  is  the  law  :  but  thanks  be  unto  God  which  giveth 
us  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

"Jesus,  the  vision  of  thy  face 
Hath  overpowering  charms  ! 
Scarce  shall  I  feel  Death's  cold  emhrace, 
If  Christ  he  in  my  arms. 

Then,  while  ye  hear  my  hcartstring's  hreak 

How  sweet  my  minutes  roll, 
A  mortal  paleness  on  ray  cheek 

Ami  glory  in  my  soul." 

And  then,  beyond  death  and  the  grave — beyond 
earth  and  time — the  good  man,  ranking  the  angels 
and  standing  next  the  throne  of  God,  shall  be 
crowned  with  glory.  And  then  on  through  the  end- 
less cycles  of  increasing  glory  and  augmenting  bliss7 
in  company  with  unfallen  angels  and  the  redeemed 
and  glorified  from  every  age  and  nation — and  bap- 
tized with  light  and  love  from  the  "face  of  God  and 
the  Lamb," — shall  remember  that  all  this  unspeak- 
able blessedness  came  to  him  as  the  result  of  "look- 
ing for  the  mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto 
eternal  life;"  and  still  "looking,"  he  shall  shout  "unto 
him  that  loved  us  and  washed  us  in  his  own  blood, 
and  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God,  be  glory 
forever" 


Moral  Character. 


lo 


THE  FIXEDNESS    OF  MORAL   CHARACTER. 

By  R.  L.  Abeesethy,  D.  D., 
(Of  the  N.  C.  Local  Ministers'  Conference.) 


He  that  is  unjust,  let  him  be  unjust  still :  and  he  that  is  filthy,  let 
trim  be  filthy  still :  and  he  that  is  righteous,  let  him  be  righteous  still: 
and  he  that  is  holy,  let  him  be  holy  stilL — Rev.  22  :  11. 

It  was  Plato  who  first  discovered  a  dualism  among 
the  entities  and  principles  of  the  universe.  To  every 
reflecting  mind  the  arrangement  seems  to  be  a  ra- 
tional necessity.  Every  positive  implies  a  negative; 
and  these  terms  are  so  correlated  that  the  one  can 
only  be  known  through  the  real  or  imaginary  ex- 
istence of  the  other.  Light  and  darkness,  heat  and 
cold,  height  and  depth,  large  and  small,  are  dualis- 
tic  terms  in  nature  exhibiting  physical  relations  re- 
ciprocally dependant  upon  each  other.  So,  too,  in 
"the  intellectual  world,  we  have  knowledge  and  ig- 
norance,  wisdom  and  folly,  learning  and  not  learn- 
ing, development  and  undevelopment,  all  of  which 
indicate  similar  relations  of  different  states  or  grades 
of  intellectual  advancement. 

The  same  principle  obtains  in  moral  relations  ; 
and  our  text  is  only  an  expression  of  certain  grades 
or  states  of  moral  character  that  have  been  attained 
during  man's  probationary7  existence,  and  which 
shall  be  announced  by  the  Judge  at  the  last  day, 
fixing  man's  destiny  without  the  possibility  of  change 
in  grade  to  all  eternity.     He  who,  when  weighed  in 


26  North  Carolina  Sermons; 

the  scales  of  eternal  justice,  shall  be  found  "  unjust,"" 
shall  be  pronounced  to  hold  that  elemental  grade  in 
all  the  coming  cycles  of  the  future.  He  that  is- 
"  filthy  "  before  the  throne  of  the  Eternal  Judge, 
shall  drag  his  moral  carcass  of  foulness  and  stench,, 
riveted  to  his  immortal  nature,  through  the  un- 
quenchable fires  of  the  damned,  forever.  He  whose- 
undying  nature  has  been  unfolded  along  the  line  of 
true  righteousness  and  holiness,,  shall  stand  before 
the  throne  fixed  in  the  moral  habitudes  of  righteous- 
ness and  holiness  forever.  There  can  possibly  be 
no  change  of  grade  in  moral  character  beyond  the- 
bour  of  men's  dying. 

In  discussing  this  important  subject,  we  propose 
to  consider  and  illustrate  certain  propositions  which 
seem  to  grow  out  of  this  text. 

1.  Though  death  produces  great  changes  in  the  physical} 
mid  mental  natures  of  man,  yet  it  leaves  his  moral  nature- 
entirely  unchanged. 

This  proposition,  we  admit,  is  in  direct  opposition 
to  certain  dogmas  of  the  Romish  church  which  teach 
the  necessity  of  purgatorial  fires  somewhere  in 
Pluto's  dominions,  unknown  to  the  Protestant 
world,  to  burn  out  these  objectionable  elements  of 
human  depravity,  during  the  interim  between  death 
and  the  general  judgment. 

There  are  others,  too,  in  the  Protestant  church, 
who  hold  that  Christians  cannot  live  without  sin  ; 
but  that,  in  passing  through  the  trying  ordeal  of 
death,  there  is  some  process  of  divine  operation,  un- 
known to  us.  through  which  the  soul  is  cleansed  and 


Moral  Character.  27 

fitted  for  association  with  the  holy  beings  in  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

To  say  the  least  of  this  latter  opinion,  it  stands  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  whole  tenor  of  Scripture, 
while  at  the  same  time  it  either  logically  transfers  a 
portion  of  Christ's  work  121  man's  salvation  to  quite 
a  different  field  assigned  it  by  the  Scriptures,  or  en- 
tirely removes  the  necessity  of  His  aid  in  man's 
complete  redemption. 

As  it  regards  the  former  opinion,  we  would  gladly 
spread  the  mantle  of  Christian  charity  over  the 
dogma  and  its  advocates,  and  attribute  so  gross  an 
absurdity  to  a  misconception  of  the  divine  oracles, 
did  not  the  records  and  character  of  this  class  of 
religionists  bid  us  think  otherwise. 

In  discussing  this  text,  we  shall  attempt  to  sustain 
our  proposition — 

First.  From  the  phenomenon  of  sleep. 

Without  entering  into  a  philosophic  discussion  of 
sleep,  all  must  admit  that  it  is  a  state  of  unconscious- 
ness. In  this  respect  it  is  the  symbol  of  death  ;  for, 
as  far  as  we  can  judge  from  outward  appearances, 
death  is  an  unconscious  state.  Whether  the  soul  in 
its  intellectual  and  moral  essences,  maintains  a  state 
of  separate  organization  and  consciousness  from  the 
body  during  the  rest  of  the  body  in  the  grave,  is 
not  now  under  discussion.  All  we  wish  at  present 
to  assume  is,  that  death,  like  sleep,  is  an  unconscious 
state.  But  during  a  state  of  sleep  there  are  no 
changes  wrought  in  man's  moral  nature.  His  bodily 
powers  have  been  recuperated  and  his  mental  nature 


2S  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

has  been  revived.  Yet  be  awakes  from  a  night's 
slumber  with  all  bis  moral  feelings,  habitudes  and 
aspirations  unchanged. 

Secondly.  We  argue  this  proposition  from  a  state 
of  insanity, 

There  is  certainly  a  wide  difference  physiologi- 
cally between  a  state  of  sleep  and  a  state  of  insanity 
in  man.  Yet  in  regard  to  the  power  to  recognize 
moral  relations,  the  only  grounds  upon  which  moral 
character  is  formed,  both  states  are  the  same.  In 
sleep  man  lives  a  vegetable  life  onl}r,  with  all  the 
functions  of  intellectual  and  moral  life  entirely  sus- 
pended. In  a  state  of  insanity  man  lives  an  animal 
life,  w7ith  the  powers  of  moral  recognitions  suspend- 
ed. In  the  former  condition,  his  intellectual  and 
moral  powers  are  both  dead  to  oar  mode  of  living 
existence.  In  the  latter  condition,  his  moral  powers 
are  dead,  because  the  bases  upon  which  they  rest 
have  been  suspended.  In  both  cases,  he  is,  so  far  as 
the  power  to  recognize  moral  relations  is  concerned, 
as  if  he  w7ere  literally  dead.  And  yet,  do  we  not  re- 
member cases  of  long  standing  where  the  subject 
when  awaking  to  a  state  of  sanity  again,  exhibited 
all  the  characteristics  of  moral  character  unchanged, 
with  which  he  entered  that  state? 

Thirdly.  We  have  an  argument  in  favor  of  this 
proposition  upon  the  physiolog}7  of  our  being. 

The  doctrine  of  waste  and  renewal  in  the  human 
body,  an  idea  so  consonant  with  the  analogies  of 
universal  nature,  cannot,  we  think,  be  questioned 
by  any  intelligent  person.     According  to  this  view 


Moral  Character.  29 

we  are  constantly  dying  in  a  physical  sense.  Our 
entire  body  dies  and  passes  away  from  every  two  to 
seven  years.  And  yet,  the  sinner  of  seven  years  ago, 
unchanged  by  divine  grace,  is  the  same  sinner  to- 
day, only  more  fixed  in  his  courses  of  vice.  He  has 
died  physically,  and  yet  his  moral  identity  has  re- 
mained unchanged. 

2.  The  moral  characters  we  form  in  this  life  go  with  us 
into  eternity  and  shall  remain  unchanged  forever,  only  be- 
coming more  intensified  as  we  advance  in  the  future. 

We  discuss  the  truth  of  this  proposition, 

First.  From  the  nature  of  probation  itself. 

We  can  have  a  conception  of  but  one  eternal,  in- 
finite and  perfect  intelligence.  Such  a  being  admits 
of  no  progression,  no  advancement.  Such  a  being 
is  God.  He  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  for- 
ever, All  other  moral  intelligences  must  have  been 
created  in  an  undeveloped  state,  so  as  to  fill  out  a 
dualistic  relation  between  what  we  might  denomi- 
nate a  moral  zero  and  perfection.  This  period  of 
duration  constitutes  the  probation  of  any  created 
moral  intelligence.  During  this  period,  he  must  be 
circumscribed  by  laws  peculiar  to  his  own  sphere. 
If  he  pass  this  period  safely,  he  reaches  a  state  of 
perfection  beyond  all  possibility  of  falling.  His 
moral  character  is  then  fixed  to  all  eternity,  without 
the  possibility  of  change.  Such,  we  conceive,  is 
man's  condition  in  our  present  state. 

Secondly.  We  discuss  the  truth  of  this  proposition 
from  the  testimony  of  Nature  herself. 

The  tendency  of  Nature  is  to  a  fixed  condition  of 


30  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

things,  The  little  acorn  containing  elemental  se- 
cretions from  every  organ  of  the  parent  tree,  falls 
into  the  earth  and  there  awaits  the  action  of  chem- 
ical laws  for  its  development.  There  is  no  tree  in 
that  acorn.  It  is  only  a  bundle  of  undeveloped  pos- 
sibilities. Light  and  caloric  play  upon  these  con- 
fined elements  ;  atoms  move  among  each  other  in 
accordance  to  natural  laws ;  little  rootlets  shoot 
themselves  into  the  earth  and  draw  up  nourishment, 
while  tiny  leaflets  peep  up  into  the  sun's  light  and 
breathe  the  atmosphere  like  a  living  animal.  The 
oak  thus  continues  to  enlarge  and  spread  its  mighty 
boughs  toward  the  bending  heavens  till  finally  it 
reaches  a  certain  stature  when  it  becomes  fixed  in 
growth  and  form,  and  there  is  no  law  of  which  we 
are  cognizant  to  change  it  back  again  into  an  acorn. 

See  the  little  child  upon  its  mother's  knee.  It  is 
neither  a  man  nor  a  woman  as  yet.  It  sleeps,  eats, 
drinks  and  grows  till  finally  it  reaches  thestature  of 
complete  manhood,  when  it  becomes  fixed  unchange- 
ably in  all  time.  The  sun  rises  in  the  east  and  the 
day  enters  upon  a  probation.  In  a  few  fleeting 
hours  he  hides  himself  behind  the  western  hills,  and 
the  day  is  fixed  in  the  calendar  of  eternity  forever. 
So,  too,  with  old  time  and  man.  Eternity  will  soon 
close  upon  each,  and  man's  destiny  is  fixed  forever 
in  heaven  or  in  hell. 

3.  The  moral  characters  we  form  here,  going  with  us 
into  eternity  and  remaining  unchanged,  shall  become  the 
chief  grounds  of  our  happiness  or  misery  forever. 

We  are,  under  the  influence  of  good  and  evil,  the 


Moral  Character.  31 

arbiters  of  our  own  destiny.  Oar  future  home  will 
not  be  so  much  a  gift,  upon  the  one  hand  to  the 
good,  and  a  sentence,  upon  the  other  to  the  bad,  as 
it  will  be  an  arrangement  of  our  future  destiny  in 
strict  conformity  to  the  eternal  laws  of  the  fitness  in 
tilings.  The  righteous  go  into  heaven  and  the  wick- 
ed into  hell  as  naturally  as  water  flows  into  water  ; 
and  the  text  is  simply  the  decisive  announcement  of 
results  attained  during  our  trial  state  upon  earth. 
The  good,  in  conformity  to  moral  law,  have  formed 
characters  suitably  adapted  to  the  exercises  and  en- 
joyments of  the  beings  in  the  home  of  God;  while 
the  wicked,  disregarding  the  requirements  of  moral 
law,  have  taken  upon  themselves,  and  affixed  to 
their  immortal  natures,  habitudes  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing diametrically  opposed  to  the  nature  and  char- 
acter of  the  ever  blessed  God.  Upon  this  lawless 
and  abnormal  development  of  the  ungodly,  his  hell 
is  based.  The  corrupted  appetites,  lusts  and  pas- 
sions of  the  hell-bound  sinner,  now  being  affixed  to 
his  nature,  will  be  carried  by  himself  into  the  nega- 
tive dominions  of  the  damned,  to  find  naught  upon 
which  to  satiate  their  burning,  corroding  thirst- 
Turning  then  upon  the  soul  itself,  they  become  the 
"  worm  that  never  dies/'  with  its  ten  thousand  snaky 
heads,  and  as  many  tails  as  heads,  all  tipped  with 
stings,  forked,  and  long,  and  venomous,  and  sharp  ; 
and,  as  the  soul  writhes  and  bleeds  and  groans  for- 
ever, it  is  continually  transpierced  by  sting  of  head 
or  tail. 

The  tendency  of  the  age  is  to  erase,  if  possible. 


32  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

from  the  human  mind  the  idea  of  a  hell  of  fire  and 
brimstone.  In  the  light  of  this  text,  the  difficulty 
would  not  be  removed.  The  ungodly  carries  a  hell 
in  his  own  bosom,  even  under  the  modifying  influ- 
ences of  God's  Eternal  Spirit.  Beyond  the  gates  of 
death  all  moral  restraint  ceases  forever,  and  then, 
•0,  my  soul  !  what  a  terrible  outgushing  of  the  pent 
up  fires  of  the  lost  soul  will  be  to  the  ungodly  ! 
Remorse,  despair,  anger  and  wrath  will  prey  upon 
the  guilty  soul,  as  it  writhes  amidst  the  woes  of  the 
damned,  gazing  upon  the  thunder-scarred  walls  of 
its  prison-house,  and  reading  in  letters  of  living  fire 
its  destiny-dooming  sentence,  sparkling  forever  1 
Its  wails  will  rise, forever  and  ever,  and  its  tears 
shall  forever  fall,  "but  not  in  mercy's  sight."  Re- 
pentance and  Despair,  as  if  to  assuage  the  pangs  of 
the  wretched  lost,  shall  walk  the  regions  of  unfading 
fire,  presenting  cups  of  burning  gall  to  all  their 
parched  lips.  Virtue,  hoiy  maid  of  heaven,  shall 
stand  before  each  face  which  way  soever  he  may 
turn,  to  let  these  wretched  beings  see  how  much 
they  have  lost;  and  ever  anon  the  thunders  of  God's 
eternal  wrath  fall  upon  each  ear  with  these  words: 
"  In  yonder's  life,  ye  knew  your  duty  but  did  it  not." 

O,  sinner,  turn;  why  will  ye  die? 

4.  The  doctrine  of  this  text  is  a  satisfactory  answer  to 
the  objection  of  the  Vniversalists,  that  "  God  would  be  un- 
just to  inflict  an  eternity  of  punishment  upon  a  sinner  for 
a  finite  act  of  transgression." 

We  admit  the  truth  of  the  objection  ;  and  yet,  in 


Moral  Character,  3-3 

the  light  of  this  subject,  we  think  we  can  see  why  a 
sinner  should  be  eternally  punished. 

Sin  arises  from  a  refusal,  upon  the  part  of  an  in- 
telligent being,  to  meet  moral  obligation  or  duty. 
This  refusal  to  meet  obligation  depends  upon  the 
status  of  the  human  will.  The  outward  action  is 
not  the  sin  ;  it  is  only  the  outcropping  of  depravity,, 
indicating  the  moral  state  of  the  will.  The  sinner, 
therefore,  is  a  sinner,  because  his  will  is  opposed  to 
God's  will.  Every  act,  therefore,  that  he  does,  and 
every  thought  that  passes  through  his  mind  is  sin, 
no  matter  what  may  be  the  character  of  the  outwrard 
act.  This  accords  with  the  declaration  of  the  Apos- 
tle, "Without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  Him." 
Another  divine  writer  says  that  "Every  imagination 
of  the  heart  is  evil,  and  only  evil,  and  that  contin- 
ually." 

The  sinner,  then,,  is  a  sinner,  because  his  will  is 
opposed  to  God's  will.  He  is  sent  to  hell  because 
he  is  a  sinner. 

But  we  have  previously  shown  that  the  moral 
character  of  the  sinner  remains  unchanged  in  hell 
forever.  His  character  depending  upon  the  status 
of  the  will  shows  that  the  will  must  stand  unchanged 
forever.  It  must,  therefore,  logically  follow  that  the 
sinner  sins  on  in  hell  forever;  and  his  moral  de- 
servings,  keeping  pace  with  his  sinning,  demand 
eternal  punishment. 

And  now  unto  Him  who  is  able  to  save  all  to  the 
uttermost  that  come  unto  God  through  Him,  be 
present  and  eternal  praises.     Amen. 


34  North  Carolina  Sermons. 


APOSTASY. 

By  Rev,  R,  G,  Barrett-,  A.  M., 
'{Of  the  North  Carolina  CoMerence.*) 


For  it  is  impossible  for  those  who  were  once  "enlightened,  and  have 
tasted  of  the  heavenly  gift,  and  were  made  partakers  of  the  Holy 
Ghost, 

And  have  tasted  the  good  word  of  God,  and  the  powers  of  the  world 
'to  come, 

If  they  shall  fall  away,  to  renew  them  again  Unto  repentance;  see- 
ing they  crucify  to  themselves  the  Son  of  God  afresh,  and  put  him  to 
an  open  shataa-Hek  vi :  4, 5,  6. 

There  are  those  who  seem  to  think  the  apostle  is 
speaking  of  backsliders  in  these  verses.  This,  how- 
ever, is  a  mistake ;  he  is  not  speaking  of  backsliders, 
but  of  apostates.  To  illustrate  this  statement,  let  us 
suppose  a  case  :  Suppose  a  man  should  profess  reli- 
gion, join  the  church,  and  live  a  consistent  Christian 
life  for  ten  years,  but  at  the  end  of  that  period 
should  fall  into  sinful  habits,  and  commit  evils  that 
would  exclude  him  from  the  church,  yet  should  ac- 
knowledge the  Bible  to  be  true,  aiid  still  hold  Jesus 
Christ  to  be  the  true  Messiah  and  the  only  Saviour  of 
sinners  ;  is  there  anything  in  the  way  of  renewing 
him  again  unto  repentance?  Surely  not.  He  is  a 
backslider;  but  he  may  return  to  God,  by  repent- 
ance towards  God  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ* 
He  has  not  denied  the  existence  of  God  ;  nor  has  he 
rejected  and  counted  Christ  an  imposter.  The 
apostle  here  places  no  barrier  in  the  way  of  his  re- 
turn. Nor  does  the  Bible  anywhere  teach  that  the 
backslider  may  not  retrace  his  steps.      The    text, 


Apostasy.  35 

therefore,  does  not  refer  to  that  class  of  persons  at 

all. 

But  take  another  case.  Suppose  a  man,  after  pro- 
fessing the  Christian  religion,  joining  the  church 
and  living  a  consistent  life  for  a  number  of  years, 
should  renounce  his  profession  and  fall  into  a  course 
of  sin  and  wickedness,  and  openly  pronounce  the 
Bible  to  be  false  and  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  veriest 
imposter;  is  it  possible  for  him  to  repent?  Why, 
he  is  an  apostate!  He  has  no  Saviour,  he  has  re- 
nounced the  only  Name  given  under  heaven  where- 
by men  can  be  saved.  May  he  return  ?  To  whom 
can  he  go  for  salvation?  Has  he  not  spurned  the 
only  Saviour  offered  to  man,  or  that  ever  will  be 
offered  ?  This  is  the  character  described  in  the  text, 
the  apostate  :  he  cannot  be  renewed  again  unto  re- 
pentance, "  it  is  impossible,"  "seeing  he  has  cruci- 
fied the  Lord  afresh  and  put  him  to  an  open  shame." 

The  question  before  us,  therefore,  relates  to  apos- 
tasy from  the  Christian  religion.  The  apostle  evi- 
dently teaches  this  doctrine  in  our  text.  He  teaches 
that  christians  may  apostatize  from  the  faith,  yea, 
that  they  have  apostatized.  For  consider  the  im- 
port of  the  terms  employed  ;  the  terms  "  enlighten- 
ed," "  tasted  of  the  heavenly  gift,"  "  partakers  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,"  "  tasted  the  good  word  of  God  and  the 
powers  of  the  world  to  come."  These  terms  certainly 
appear  to  describe  christians;  they  are  such  as  are 
generally  used  in  the  scriptures  to  describe  chris- 
tians— persons  who  have  been  converted,  who  have 
been  pardoned,  who  have  experienced  the  washing 


36  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

of  regeneration  and  the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
And,  if  there  were  any  doubt  as  to  the  true  meaning 
of  these  terms,  the  apostle  goes  on  in  the  text  speak- 
ing of  the  same  persons  as  having  once  repented ; 
else,  what  does  he  mean  by  the  expression  "  to  renew 
them  again  unto  repentance,"  if  these  very  same 
"once  enlightened"  persons  had  never  repented? 
So  we  conclude  that  the  persons  described  by  the 
Apostle  in  the  text  were  fully  pardoned  and  thor- 
oughly regenerated  christians.  Now  mark  you  ! 
these  christians  fell  away  ;  not  only  backslid,  but 
apostatized  utterly  :  for  the  expression  in  the  text, 
"  if  they  shall  fall  away,"  should  be  translated,  and 
have  fallen  away.  It  should  be  in  the  past  tense. 
Dr.  McKnight,  a  Calvinist,  but  a  candid  man,  so 
translates  it.  Dr.  Clarke  endorses  him.  And  the  lat- 
ter learned  divine  severely  criticises  our  translators 
for  their  want  of  candor,  and  for  their  undue  bias  to- 
wards the  dogma  called  the  "perseverance  of  the 
saints."  So  it  is  quite  possible,  according  to  the 
teaching  of  the  apostle  in  this  text,  for  christians  to 
apostatize,  to  utterly  fall  away,  to  "  fall  from  grace." 
And,  it  is  to  be  observed,  the  Scriptures  fully  sus- 
tain the  apostle  in  this  view.  We  cite  a  few  pas- 
sages: "Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth;  but  if  the 
salt  have  lost  its  savor,  wherewith  shall  it  be 
salted?  it  is  thenceforth  good  for  nothing,  but  to 
be  cast  out  and  trodden  under  foot  of  men."  It  is 
implied  here  that  salt  may  lose  "  his  savor  ;"  and 
is  it  not  a  known  fact  that  it  sometimes  does  ?  So 
it  is  alike  implied  that  christians  may  lose  their 


Apostasy.  37 

religion;  and  is  it  not  so  that  some  men  do,  and 
are  thenceforth  good  for  nothing  but  to  be  cast  out? 
"  Wherefore  I  say  unto  you,  all  manner  of  sin  and 
blasphemy  shall  be  forgiven  unto  men  :  but  the  blas- 
phemy against  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  not  be  forgiven 
unto  men.  And  whosoever  speaketh  a  word  against 
the  Son  of  Man,  it  shall  be  forgiven  him  :  but  who- 
soever speaketh  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  shall  not 
be  forgiven  him,  neither  in  this  world,  neither  in 
the  world  to  come."  This  passage  seems  to  doom 
the  apostate  irretrievably.  "If  a  man  abide  not  in 
me,  he  is  cast  forth  as  a  branch,  and  is  withered  ; 
and  men  gather  them,  and  cast  them  into  the  fire, 
and  they  are  burned."  We  must  abide  in  Christ,  or 
be  cast  into  the  fire  ;  we  seem  to  be  left  to  our  own 
option  about  it.  "  For  if  we  sin  wilfully  after  that 
we  have  received  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  there 
remaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sins,  but  a  certain 
fearful  looking  for  of  judgment  and  fiery  indigna- 
tion, which  shall  devour  the  adversaries."  "  For  if 
after  they  have  escaped  the  pollutions  of  the  world 
through  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  they  are  again  entangled  therein,  and  over- 
come, the  latter  end  is  worse  with  them  than  the 
beginning.  For  it  had  been  better  for  them  not  to 
have  known  the  way  of  righteousness,  than,  after 
they  have  known  it,  to  turn  from  the  holy  com- 
mandment delivered  unto  them.  But  it  is  happened 
unto  them  according  to  the  true  proverb,  The  dog 
is  turned  to  his  own  vomit  again  ;  and  the  sow  that 
was  washed  to  her  wallowing  in  the  mire."     "  They 

o 

a 


38  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

that  forsake  the  Lord  shall  be  consumed."  But  why 
multiply  quotations  on  this  subject.  Neither  is 
there  need  for  comments  on  these  quotations  ;  their 
import  is  plain  and  conclusive.  And  the  learned 
Dr.  Clark  well  adds :  "  Were  there  no  Scripture  ex- 
press on  this  subject,  the  nature  of  the  present  state 
of  man,  which  is  a  state  of  'probation  or  trial,  must 
necessarily  imply  it,"— that  is,  must  imply  apostasy. 
"  Let  him  who  most  assuredly  standeth,  take  heed 
lest  he  fall." 

The  contrary  doctrine,  therefore,  that  of  the 
"  perseverance  of  the  saints,"  is  erroneous.  God  is 
consistent.  The  doctrines  of  the  Bible  do  not  clash, 
do  not  conflict  one  with  another.  The  conflict  is 
with  the  creeds  of  men.  There  is  the  rub.  Men  go 
to  the  Bible  with  their  opinions  already  formed,  in- 
stead of  going  to  it  to  find  out  what  it  teaches,  and 
then  form  their  opinions.  This  is  reversing  the  or- 
der. It  is  an  effort  to  make  God  conform  to  man's 
views.  But  mark  you,  God  does  not  teach  the  ab- 
solute certainty  of  apostasy  in  one  breath,  and  then 
in  the  next  contradict  himself!  Never!  That  is 
characteristic  of  men  ;  that  is  what  men  often  do ; 
they  often  contradict  themselves.  But  God  never 
does.  It  is  difficult  to  find  the  Scripture,  indeed 
there  is  none,  that  plainly  and  positively  declares  the 
"  unconditional  perseverance  of  the  saints."  "  For 
I  am  persuaded  that  neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  an- 
gels, nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  pres- 
ent, nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth]  nor 
any  other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from 


Apostasy 


,he  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  war  Lord," 
is  about  the  strongest,  most  plausable,  and  the  one 
most  frequently  offered  in  support  of  this  dogma  of 
men.     This  passage  has  been  complimented  as  the 
most  sublime   and  beautiful  ever  uttered  by   the 
apostle  Paul,  and  is  said  to  surpass  anything  of  the 
kind  ever  produced  by  Grecian  sages  or  Roman  ora- 
tors.     But  does  this  deny  or  contradict  the  plain 
statement  of  our  text,  that  christians   "  have  fallen 
away,"   have    utterly   apostatized   from  the   faith? 
Most  assuredly  not.     The  passage,  at  most,  is  only  a 
poor,  presumptive  argument  in  favor  of  "  persever- 
ance," and -does  not  give  the  shadow  of  support  to 
the  idea  of  "  unconditional  perseverance."     Does  the 
apostle  mean  to  say  that  it  is  impossible  for  God  to 
remove  his  love  from  us  ?    or  that  it  is  impossible 
for  us  to  remove  our  love  from  him  ?     Or  does  he 
mean  both,  that  God's  affection  cannot  be  separated 
from  us,  and  that  our  affection  cannot  be  separated 
from  God?      He  cannot    mean    either;    for  he  is 
speaking  of  agents  outside  of  God,  and  of  us.     He 
says  these  outside  agents  cannot  separate  us  from  the 
love  of  God,     He  is  speaking  of  what  third  parties 
cannot  effect  in  the  case  ;  and  not  of  what  God  can 
do  in  the  matter,  nor  of  what  we  ourselves  can  do. 
Before  this,  or  any  other  passage  in  the  Bible,  can 
be  made  to  prove  "unconditional  perseverance,"  it 
must  first  be  shown  that  becoming  a  christian  de- 
stroys the  free  agency  of  man ;    it  must  be  shown 
that  man,  once  a  christian,  loses  all  power  to  do  any 
wrong  for  which  he  may  be  held  responsible ;  that 


40  North  Carolina"  Sermons. 

lie  loses  all  power  to  love  the  world  more  than  he 
loves  God  ;  that  he  loses  all  power  to  backslide ;  that 
he  cannot  apostatize.  But  such  a  conclusion  is  in 
direct  conflict  with  our  text,  which  positively  de- 
clares the  doctrine  of  apostasy.  And  as  it  is  more 
likely  that  men  misinterpret  the  Bible  than  that 
God  should  contradict  himself,  we  nmst  conclude 
that  the  "  unconditional  perseverance  of  the  saints"" 
is  a  doctrine  of  men,  without  any  foundation  in  the 
sacred  Scriptures  for  its  support.  Therefore,  those 
who  go  about  teaching  "  onco  in  Christ,  always  iia 
Christ,"  just  because  they  have  heard  others  say  so,- 
and  not  because  they  have  examined  the  Scriptures 
and  find  it  to  be  true,-  deserve  to  be  censured.  The 
simple  are  led  by  such  teachers  to  embrace  wrong 
notions  of  God,  of  religion,  of  duty,  and  of  responsi- 
bility. "  And  if  the  blind  lead  the  blind,  both  shall 
fall  into  the  ditch."  The  people  should  be  taught 
the  principles  of  the  Bible.  Christians  should  be 
warned  of  the  danger  of  back-sliding,  of  the  dreadful 
possibility  of  apostasy,  and  not  be  told  perpetually 
that  there  is  no  danger  of  falling.  "  Comfort  yef 
'comfort  ye,  my  people,"  but  do  not  tell  them  that 
■their  "  waifare  is  accomplished,"  that  the  "battle  is- 
fought,"  th-at  the  victory  is  achieved,  while  they  are 
still  in  a  state  of  probation,  while  they  are  yet  on  trial  : 
rather  exhort  them  to  "  watch  and  pray,"  lest  they 
enter  into  temptation  and  "make  shipwreck  con- 
cerning faith."  "  For  it  is  impossible  to  renew  again 
unto  repentance  those  who  have  fallen  away,  seeing 
they  crucify  to  themselves" — in  their  own  mind— 


Ftjture  Felicity.  41 

"the  Son  of  God  afresh,  and  put  him  to  an  open 
shame."  That  is,  they  inwardly  approve  and  eon- 
sent  to  his  crucifixion,  a  crucifixion  both  public  and 
shameful.  It  is  impossible  to  restore  them  to  a  sec- 
ond repentance  while  they  remain  in  this  state  of 
mind,  which  is  precisely  the  state -of  mind  the  Jew 
was  in  when  he  cried  "crucify  him'!  crucify  him!" 
I  do  not  say,  however,  that  the  apostate  is  predes- 
tinated to  remain  in  this  state  of  mind.  The  apostle 
•does  not  say  that  he  is.  He  onty  says  salvation  is 
impossible  to  him  while  be  remains  in  that  state  of 
•mind.  It  may  be  traa,  therefore,  that  "  while  the 
lamp  holds  out  to  burn,  the  vilest  sinner  may  re- 
turn," not -excepting  even  the  apostate. 


A  PRESENT   KNOWLEDGE  OF  FUTURE 
FELICITY. 

By  B.  York,  I>.  D., 
(Of  the  North  G&rolma  Local  Ministers"  Conference.) 


'For  we  know  that  if  ©ur  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  were  dis- 
solved, we  have  a  building  of  Ged,a  house  nottmade^-ith  hands,  eter- 
nal in  the  heavens.— 2  Cor.  v.  L 

Mutation,  or  the  law  of  change,  is  indelibly  writ- 
ten on  all  things  earthly  :  the  fr  gile  flower,  un- 
folding its  delicate  petals  to  kiss  the  morning  dew, 
may  fade  ere  it  is  noon.;    and   its  fragrance  and 


42  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

beauty  perish  together.  The  centenary  flower,, 
which  is  one  hundred  years  in  blooming,  only  for  a 
few  minutes  remains  full-blown,  and  then  closes  its 
petals  to  be  seen  no  more.  The  leaf  now  so*  fresh 
and  green,  within  the  lapse  of  a  few  months,  is-  des- 
tined not  only  to  fade  and  change  its  color,  but  also 
to  drop  from  its-  parent  stem,  and,  falling  to  the 
ground,  mingle  in  common  dust  with  all  its  prede- 
cessors. The  forest  trees,  now  so  gaily  attired  in 
their  verdant  robes,  will  soon  be  dismantled  of  all 
their  beauty,  and  the  wintry  winds  sigh  through 
their  leafless  boughs.  Nor  are  these  constant  mu- 
tations confined  to  the  vegetable  kingdom  ;  for  man,. 
though  created  in  the  image  of  his  glorious  creator, 
is  subject  to  similar  changes:  he  is  compared  in 
Scripture  to  grass,  to  the  flower  of  the  field,  and  to- 
the  fleeting  vapor.     Hence  ihe  poet— 

""Life  is  «i  span,  a  fleeting  hour  : 
How  soon  the  vapor  flies  ! 
Man  is  a  tender  transient  flower' 
That  e'en  in  blooming  dies.'" 

Man  is  the  most  beautiful  and  expressible  object 
in  nature  ;  but  alas  how  soon  his  beauty  vanishes  I 
From  the  fair  cheek  of  }routb,  the  rosy  tints  may 
fade  by  sickness,  in  a  day ;  the  eyes,  sparkling  with 
youthful  vivacity,  joy  and  hope,  will  grow  dim  with 
age,  and  glaze  in  death  ;  the  raven  locks  or  golden 
curls  falling  in  graceful  festoons  upon  the  fair  neck,, 
will  turn  gray  by  the  frosts  of  many  winters,  and 
the  erect  form  stoop  beneath  the  accumulated  weighi 
of  years. 


Future  Felicity.  43 

It  is  consoling  to  the  sorrowful  heart  to  look  be- 
yond this  scene  of  fading,  changing  and  dying,  to 
the  shining  shore  and  fadeless  beauty  beyond  the 
river. 

uO,  the  transporting,  rap'trous  scene 
That  rises  to  m}r  sight; 
Sweet  fields  arrayed  in  living  green, 
And  rivers  of  delight." 

To  these  glorious  scenes,  our  text  directs  our 
thoughts. 

There  is  a  perceptible  difference  between  faith  and 
knowledge  :  "  Faith,"  as  defined  by  the  apostle,  "  is 
the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of 
things  not  seen  ;"  and,  when  the  evidence  is  suffi- 
ciently clear,  strong  and  harmonious,  it  challenges 
our  belief;  nor  can  we  withhold  our  assent  to  the 
truth  of  the  proposition,  though  we  may  not  ac- 
knowledge it.  Knowledge  is  the  result  of  the  com- 
bined evidence  of  the  outward  senses  and  internal 
consciousness:  what  we  see,  hear  and  feel,  we  do  not 
say  we  believe  ;  but  we  know.     Hence  the  poet — 

"What  we  have  felt  and  seen 
With  confidence  we  tell. 
And  publish  to  the  sons  of  men 
The  signs  infallible." 

There  is  also  a  marked  difference  between  mathe- 
matical or  physical  knowledge  and  moral  knowledge. 
If  we  know  that  a  triangle  is  equal  to  two  right  an- 
gles, we  not  only  know  that  it  is  so  now,  but  we 
know  that  it  has  always  been,  and  always  will  be; 


44  "North  Carolina  Sermons. 

for  the  relation  of  the  parts  never  changes.  If  the 
relation  of  the  parts  change,  the  triangle  will  cease 
to  be  a  triangle,  and  the  right  angle  will  cease  to  be 
arightangle;  consequently  a  different  thing.  Again, 
if  a  body  at  rest  be  struck  with  two  equal  forces  at 
right  angles  with  the  acting  forces,  the  body  so  af- 
fected must  move;  but  the  tendency  to  obey  the  one 
is  equal  to  that  of  the  other  ;  hence  it  must  move  in 
a  line  equally  distant  from  those  marked  by  the  im- 
pinging forces — that  is,  in  the  diagonal  of  a  square — • 
and,  if  we  know  this,  we  shall  know  it  forever,  or  as 
long  as  we  know  anything. 

But  we  can  not  say  so  much  for  moral  knowledge  ; 
for  you  may  know  to  day  that  you  have  a  good  and 
sufficient  title  to  your  real  estate :  but  you  may  not 
know  this  a  week  or  even  a  day  hence  ;  for  you  may 
voluntarily  transfer  your  title  to  another,  and  then 
you  cannot  know  what  does  not  exist.  The  sinner 
may  know  to-day  that  he  is  a  sinner,  that  he  is  a 
violator  of  the  moral  law,  consequently  exposed  to 
the  wrath  of  God  ;  but  he  may  not  know  this  to- 
morrow ;  for,  by  repentance  towards  God  and  faith 
in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  relation  which  he  sus- 
tains to  God  may  be  changed  from  that  of  a  blind 
child  of  the  wicked  one  to  a  son  or  daughter  of  the 
Lord  Almighty  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  you  may 
know  to-day  that  you  are  a  child  of  God  and  au  heir 
of  heaven,  but  you  may  not  know  this  to-morrow  ; 
for  you  ma}^  wilfully  sin,  and  thus  cease  to  be  a 
son  or  daughter  of  God.  Now  since  the  relation 
of  the  parties  has  changed  the   title   to   the  hcav- 


Future  Felicity.  45 

enly  inheritance,  which  is  the  result  of  that  relation 
is  forfeited  ;  consequently  cannot  be  known. 

We  know,— who  know  ?  We.  We  do  not  know 
what  Paul  knew  as  an  inspired  apostle;  but  we 
know  what  Paul  knew  as  a  christian,  and  what  is  the 
exalted  privilege  of  every  christian  to  know. 

What  do  we  know  ?  We  know  that.  That  taken 
abstractly  means  nothing,  but  taken  concretely  it 
means  much,  very  much  ;  for  it  is  a  substitute  for 
the  clause  we  have  a  building  of  God,  a  house  not  made 
with  hands  eternal  in  the  heavens.  Drop  that  and  the 
involved  clause,  and  read,  we  know  we  have  a  build- 
ing of  God,  a  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in 
the  heavens;  and  this  is  the  glorious  object  of  the 
christian's  knowledge.  The  object  of  the  christian's 
knowledge  is  of  surpassing  excellence;  its  value 
cannot  be  estimated— compared  to  it,  the  wealth  of 
worlds  is  but  a  gaudy  toy. 

But  how  do  we  know  that  we  have  a  building  of  God. 
a  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens  f 
This  knowledge  is  based  on  the  knowledge  of  a  fact 
necessarily  antecedent  to  the  former,  viz  :  the  knowl- 
edge of  sins  forgiven,  a  knowledge  that  we  have 
passed  from  death  unto  life,  that  our  relation  to  God 
has  been  changed,  and  we  have  become  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  Lord  Almighty.  Now,  in  virtue 
of  our  sonship,  we  are  heirs  of  God,  and  joint  heirs 
with  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and,  as  our  heavenly 
Father  has  many  mansions  in  his  house,  in  virtue 
of  our  heirship,  we  know  we  have  a  mansion  in 
heaven,  a  house  not  made  with  hands.     This  knowl- 


46  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

edge  is  satisfactory  ;  it  rests  upon  a  foundation  that 
cannot  be  moved  nor  shaken  ;  it  pours  a  full  tide  of 
consolation  and  joy  in  the  believing  soul ;  it  enables 
the  christian  to  look  calmly  and  undismayed  upon 
his  fast-decaying  earthly  house,  knowing  that  he  has 
a  better  house,  a  fairer  mansion  located  in  a  better 
country,  and  that,  when  his  earthly  house  shall  have 
been  dissolved,  he  will  be  translated  to  his  heavenly 
home,  "be  clothed  in  upon  with  his  house  which  is 
from  heaven,"  and  though  absent  from  the  body 
he  will  ever  be  present  with  the  Lord,  which  is  far 
better. 

But  another  question  may  arise  in  the  minds  of 
some  :  Can  a  sinner  know  his  sins  on  earth  forgiven? 
We  answer  in  the  affirmative,  he  can.  Then  how 
can  he  know  that  his  sins  are  forgiven  ?  If  one  has 
a  pain  in  the  head  or  arm,  or  is  sick,  he  does  not 
send  for  his  family  physician  to  tell  him  what  he 
already  knows;  but  how  does  he  know  it?  He 
knows  it  by  his  consciousness;  and  if  the  pain  cease, 
or  the  sick  man  become  well,  he  needs  no  one  to  in- 
form him  of  that  fact,  for  his  consciousness  satisfac- 
torily testifies  to  it ;  but  his  consciousness  cannot 
tell  him  what  caused  the  pain,  or  what  caused  it  to 
cease— if  he  knows  this  he  must  know  it  from  some 
other  source;  for  consciousness  can  only  testify  to 
the  fact  itself — beyond  this  it  is  an  incompetent  wit- 
ness. In  like  manner  the  sinner  who  sees  himself 
as  he  is — who  apprehends  the  full  extent  of  the  dan- 
ger, to  which  his  sins  have  exposed  him,  who  feels 
the  burden  of  his  guilt,  the  heavy  load  of  sin  press- 


Future  Felicity.  47 

ing  upon  him — knows  he  is-  a  sinner,  and  if  this 
load  of  sin  be  removed,  he  knows  it;  bat  how  does 
he  know  it?  He  knows  it  by  his  consciousness  or 
the  witness  of  his  own  spirit,  (I  use  the  terms  con- 
sciousness and  spirit  as  synonyms)  but,  as  his  spirit 
can  only  testify  to  the  change  which  has  taken  place, 
or  the  fact  itself,  there  is  need  of  another  witness  to 
testif}'  what  this  change  is,  and  this  witness  is  the 
Spirit  itself  bearing  witness  with  bis  spirit  that  this 
change  is  the  new  birth,  the  pardon  of  all  his  sins, 
and  the  full  assurance  that  he  has  passed  from  death 
unto  life.  Hence  the  pardoned  sinner  can  now  say 
with  full  confidence,  I  know  that  God,  for  Christ's 
sake,  has  pardoned  my  sins. 

But  to  illustrate:  Mr.  A  has  a  litigated  case  in- 
volving all  his  temporal  interest,  which  is  to  be  tried 
m  a  foreign  court  to  which  he  can  have  no  personal  ac- 
cess ;  but  there  is  an  attorney  who  practices  in  that 
court  whom  he  can  employ  as  counsel;  to  him  he 
sends  his  plea  and  has  it  recorded  according  to  law, 
together  with  his  affidavits,  by  which  he  hopes  to 
make  good  his  plea  ahd  gain  his  suit.  The  time 
for  trial  arrives,  the  court  sits,  the  case  is  tried,  and 
one  hastens  to  inform  Mr.  A  that  his  suit  has  been 
tried,  and,  according  to  rumor, decided  in  his  favor; 
this  information  may  afford  A  some  consolation  by 
inspiring  additional  hope,  but  it  is  b}'  no  means 
satisfactory  ;  for,  though  the  informant  testifies  to 
the  fact  itself,  he  leaves  the  result  involved  in  a  mist 
of  uncertainty,  since  rumor  is  not  a  reliable  source 
of  information,  nor  was  the  informant  authorized  to 


48  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

communicate  the  result  to  the  plaintiff;  but  in  the 
meantime  he  receives  official  documents  from  his 
attorney  that  he  had  gained  the  suit.  This  relieves 
him  of  all  suspense  and  anxiety — dispersing  all  doubt 
and  giving  entire  satisfaction.  So  every  sinner  (and 
we  all  are  sinners  or  have  been)  has  an  important 
suit — having  violated  the  law  whose  penalty  is 
death,  not  only  involving  his  temporal  but  also  his 
■eternal  interest — which  is  to  be  tried  in  the  high 
Chancery  of  Hevaen,  to  which  he  can  have  no  per- 
sonal access;  but  he  has  an  advocate  in  the  court  of 
heaven — Jesus,  the  friend  of  sinners — to  him  he  can 
apply  or  present  his  case,  and  through  him,  and 
him  only,  can  he  approach  God  ;  for  God,  out  of 
Christ,  is  a  consuming  fire. 

But  what  is  the  sinner's  plea?  The  only  plea 
which  he  can  make  that  will  avail,  the  one  which 
every  sinner  must  make  who  sues  for  pardon,  is  the 
•death  of  Christ.  His  death  is  vicarious:  it  satisfied 
the  law,  appeased  divine  justice,  and  reconciled  God 
the  Father  to  man.  But  the  sinner  must  be  recon- 
ciled to  God,  for  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  to  God; 
it  is  not  subject  to  his  law,  neither  indeed  can  be. 

The  humble  penitent  approaching  the  throne  of 
grace — the  mercy  seat,  the  altar  of  prayer — may 
successfully  urge  his  plea,  Jesus  died  !  He  died 
even  for  me,  the  chief  of  sinners.  Write  it,  record- 
ing angel,  write  it  in  the  book  as  with  a  pen  of  iron 
and  with  the  point  of  a  diamond  ;  let  the  blood  of 
the  atonement  be  the  ink  ;  there  let  it  remain  un- 
blurred  and  unblotted,  with  not  a  single  letter  erased; 


Future  Felicity.  49 

for  this  is  my  only  hope  of  salvation.  Jesus  his  ad- 
vocate pleads  for  him — every  wound  of  Jesus  pleads ; 
yes,  every  drop  of  blood  speaks,  and  it  speaks  better 
things  than  the  blood  of  Abel:  the  blood  of  Abel 
cries  with  trumpet  tongue  for  vengeance — but  the 
blood  of  Jesus  pleads  for  pardon,  peace  and  heaven, 

"Five  bleeding  wounds  he  bears, 
Received  on  Calvary; 
They  pour  effectual  prayers, 

They  strongly  speak  for  me  ; 
'Forgive  himr  O  forgive,'  they  cry, 
'Xor  let  that  ransomed  sinner  doe."1 

While  the  sinner  is  thus  agonizing,  and  urging 
his  plea  at  the  altar  of  prayer,  suppose  one  approach 
him  and  say,  (as  some  imprudently  do,)  I  believe 
your  &ins  are  pardoned  }  I  believe  you  have  religion, 
can  you  not  arise  and  tell  what  Christ  has  done  for 
you  I  But  the  language  of  such  a  penitent  would 
be :  I  do  not  feel  it,  I  want  to  know  it  •  but  the  load 
of  sin  is  removed,  the  sinner  knows  this,  his  con- 
sciousness or  spirit  bears  testimony  to  the  fact ;  but 
beyond  this  his  spirit  is  an  incompetent  witness  ; 
but  the  Holy  Spirit  bears  witness  with  his  spirit 
that  this  change  is  the  pardon  of  all  his  sins — the 
regeneration  of  his  nature-— and  now,  being  justified 
by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God,  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

Now  he  can  confidently  say,  I  know  my  sins, 
which  were  many,  are  all  forgiven  ;  for  in  the  mouth 
of  two  or  three  witnesses  every  word  shall  be  estab- 
lished.    The   witness  of  our  spirit  and  that  of  the 


50  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

Holy  Spirit  are  generally  simultaneous,  nor  can  any 
difference  of  time  be  discriminated;  but  this  is  not 
always  the  case;  it  was  not  so  in  mine,  for  several 
minutes  passed  between  the  removal  of  the  burden 
and  the  witness  of  the  Spirit;  and  I  have  known 
some  to  go  for  months  after  they  had  been  relieved 
from  the  load  of  sin  before  receiving  the  witness  of 
the  Spirit. 

In  the  heavens.  The  Scriptures  speak  of  three 
heavens:  the  atmospheric  region  is  called  heaven, 
as  the  fowls  of  heaven  ;  the  region  of  the  stars  is  also 
called  heaven,  as  the  stars  of  heaven  ;  St.  Paul  speaks 
of  a  third  heaven,  the  region  of  perpetual  bliss. 

We  do  not  know  in  what  part  of  the  universe 
heaven,  or  the  home  of  the  good,  is  located,  since 
this  has  not  been  revealed  ;  but  we  know  that  heaven 
is  where  Christ  is,  for  his  presence  makes  heaven: 
the  display  of  his  glory,  the  smiles  of  his  face,  and 
the  raptures  of  his  love  would  make  any  place 
heaven. 

"The  smilings  of  thy  face, 
How  amiable  they  are  I 
'Tis  heaven  to  rest  in  thine  embrace, 
And  nowhere  else  but  there." 

Heaven,  in  the  Bible,  is  generally  represented  as 
being  above.  This  expression  may  be  used  in  a 
moral  as  well  as  a  physical  sense.  In  a  moral  sense 
it  is  elevated  above  all  evil,  it  stands  securely  high 
above  all  danger;  for  neither  temptations  nor  evils 
of  any  kind  can  ever  reach  that  high  and  holy  place ; 


Future  Felicity.  51 

it  is  the  residence  of   the  holy  angels,  the  bright 
happy  home  of  the  soul. 

"All  the  stormy  winds  that  blow  ; 
Every  swelling  tide  of  woe, 
All  the  bitter  tears  that  flow, 
Flow  below  heaven."' 

Every  bloodstained  battle  field,  all  the  garments 
rolled  in  blood,  the  thunders  of  the  death-dealincr 
cannon,  the  roar  of  musketry,  the  clash  of  resounding 
arms,  the  sighs  and  groans  of  the  wounded  and  dy- 
ing, the  shouts  of  the  victors,  are  all  seen  and  heard 
below  heaven. 

Why  should  he  who  lives  in  a  deep,  dark  ravine, 
where  but  few  straggling  rays  of  sunlight  can  pene- 
trate, dread  to  ascend  to  the  mountain  top,  above 
the  storm's  career,  where  the  thunders  roll,  and  the 
lightnings  flash  far  beneath  his  feet,  and  where  the 
unclouded  sun  perpetually  shines,  scattering  ni^ht 
and  gloom  away? 

Why  should  the  christian,  the  follower  of  Christ, 
dread  to  leave  this  vale  of  tears,  those  scenes  of  fad- 
ing and  dying,  and  ascend  to  his  bright  mansion— 
his  heavenly  home  ?  It  is  true  that  he  will  be  ab- 
pent  from  the  body  of  his  earthly  house,  but  he  will 
be  forever  present  with  the  Lord  of  life  and  glory, 
svhich  is  infinitely  better. 

"Why  should  we  start  and  fear  to  die  ? 

What  tim'rous  worms  we  mortals  are  ! 
Death  is  the  gate  to  endless  joy, 
And  yet  we  dread  to  enter  there." 


52  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

"  Eternal  in  the  heavens."  The  crowing  glory  of 
the  heavenly  felicity  is  its  duration.  How  unlike 
the  fleeting  shadows,  fading  beauties,  and  dying 
flowers  of  earth. 

"These  mortal  joys  bow  soon  they  fade  ! 
How  swift  they  pass  away  ! 
The  dying  flower  reclines  its  head, 
The  beauty  of  a  day." 

But  on  the  shining  shore  beyond  the  river,  flowers 
forever  bloom,  celestial  fields  arrrayed  in  living 
o-reen.  everv  face  shines  with  immortal  beauty,  and 
every  eye  sparkles  with  heavenly  delight.  There  is 
no  night  there  ;  for 

"God  the  Son  forever  reigns 
And  scatters  night  away." 

Who  can  estimate  the  value  of  eternal  felicity  ? 
of  that  life  which  knows  no  end?  of  that  house 
which  never  decays  nor  grows  old  ?  but,  like  the 
crystal  waters  of  the  river  of  Paradise,  flows  on  for- 
ever ! 

Christians,  you  have  a  present  knowledge  of 'future 
felicity;  then,  with  you  this  happiness  has  already 
commenced.  One  has  said,  and  not  without  reason,j 
the  way  to  heaven  is  heaven,  it  is  heaven  begun,J 
heaven  in  miniature.  Then  press  with  vigor  on, 
till  you  gain  the  crown,  and  reap  the  golden  harvest] 
of  a  well  spent  life. 

Those  of  you  who  have  never  tasted  that  the  Lord 
is  good,  have  never  realized  the  joys  of  pardoned  sin, 
turn  your  wayward  feet  from  the  pathway  of  de- 


The  Mission  of  Christ.  53 

s'truction,  and  seek  God  while  he  may  be  found,  and 
call  upon  him  while  he  is  near;  for  time  is  short, 
but  eternity  is  long.  The  lost  are  miserable,  but 
the  saved  are  happy,     Then  choose  life  and  live. 


THE  END  FOR  WHICH  CHRIST  CAME. 

By  Rev.  J.  R.  Brooks, 
Of  the  North  Carolina  Conference. 


lam  come  that  they  might  have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it 
more  abundantly.— John  x:  10. 

The  coming  spoken  of  in  the  text  may  refer  re- 
motely to  what  the  Son  of  God,  as  Mediator,  did  for 
oar  race  before  His  incarnation.  It  probably,  how- 
ever, refers  chiefly  to  His  manifestation  and  sacrifice 
in  the  flesh — to  His  incarnation  and  life,  His  minis- 
try and  death,  His  resurrection  and  intercession. 

In  the  text  He  tells  us  the  end  of  His  mediation  : 
"  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life,  and  that  they 
might  have  it  more  abundantly." 

The  first  end  and  effect  of  the  Saviour's  mediation 
is  that  we  have  our  natural  life— our  existence  as 
moral  beings. 

It  is  not  believed  that  God  would  ever  have  created 

man  a  moral  being  apart  from  His  purpose  and  plan 

to  redeem  him.     Redemption  was  not  the  result  of 

•any  after-thought  on  the  part  of  the  Almighty — was 

4 


54  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

no  improvised  plan  for  meeting  an  unforeseen  exi- 
gency in  man's  affairs.  On  the  contrary,  it  was 
part  of  God's  "eternal  purpose,  which  He  purposed 
in  Christ  Jesus,"  concerning  our  race.  Christ  is  the 
Lamb  that  was,  in  the  purpose  of  God,  "  slain  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world.'"'  There  was  evidently 
unity  of  design  in  creation  and  redemption.  Hence 
it  was,  probably,  that  God,  by  Jesus  Christ,  created 
as  well  as  redeemed  our  race.  St.  Paul  more  than 
intimates  that  the  Son  of  God  was  anointed  for  both 
these  acts  in  the  great  drama  of  human  existence. 
And  that  the  Messiah  created  man  with  reference  to, 
preparatory  for,  and  for  the  sake  of,  the  glorious  re- 
sults of  redemption.  The  attentive  reader  of  his 
epistles  to  the  Ephesians  and  Collossians  will  hardly 
fail  to  notice  that  the  apostle  seems  to  connect  both 
these  works  in  man's  behalf  with  each  other.  Also, 
that  he  connects  both  of  them  with  Christ  as  the 
Author  of  both,  assuring  us  that  man  was  originally 
s<  created  by  Jesus  Christ,"  and  is  now  "created  anew 
in  Christ  Jesus." 

r  But,  whether  man  was  created  on  the  basis  of  the 
atonement  or  not,  it  is  very  certain  that  he  was  per- 
mitted to  live  after  the  fall  only  on  that  basis.  For, 
by  sin  he  forfeited  the  right  to  life,  and  the  penalty 
of  the  law  would  instantly  have  cut  the  race  off  had 
not  Christ,  by  becoming  our  Substitute,  stayed  the 
execution  of  the  sentence.  And,  if  justice  had  not 
demanded  the  sinner's  death,  the  goodness  of  God 
would  have  forbidden  the  propagation  of  our  race, 
apart  from  any  provision  for  its  holiness  and  hap- 


The  Mission  of  Christ.  55 

piness.  This  position  is  so  well  sustained  by  the 
general  teaching  of  God's  word  that  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  quote  particular  passages.  It  is  very  certain 
that  every  man  is  born  into  the  world  on  the  basis 
of  the  atonement,  in  view  of  its  provisions,  and  in 
reach  of  its  benefits — that  no  man  would  have  been 
born  had  not  Christ  become  his  Substitute  and  Sure- 
ty— had  He  not  agreed  to  redeem  him  and  bring  to 
bear  influences  adapted  to  make  his  existence  a  bless- 
ing and  a  success.  Christ  came  and  stood  for  us, 
then,  that  we  might  be  born  into  the  world,  with  all 
the  glorious  possibilities  involved  in  our  existence 
as  moral  beings.  He  has  come  that  we  might  come; 
He  has  lived  in  the  flesh  that  we  might  live  also. 

A.  more  important  end  of  Christ's  coming  is  that 
we  might  have  spiritual  and  eternal  life. 

By  this  is  not  meant  simply  spirit  life — exist- 
ence as  a  spirit  or  a  moral  being,  which  has  just 
been  noticed.  But  reference  is  had  to  that  supernat- 
ural and  spiritual  endowment,  whose  elements  and 
functions  are  faith  in  God,  and  peace  with  and  love 
to  Him  and  man  ;  that  endowment  which  involves 
or  issues  in  purity  of  heart,  holiness  of  life,  and  spir- 
itual happiness.  The  Messiah  did  not,  through  His 
creative  or  mediatorial  work,  bring  us  into  being 
under  the  dire  necessity  cff  dragging  out  a  miserable 
and  eternal  existence  on  the  low  level  of  sin  and 
suffering.  But  he  brings  to  bear  influences  that  are 
adapted  to  lift  us  to  the  high  plane  of  faith  in,  and 
communion  with  God,  and  of  an  eternal  life  of  love 
and  joy  in  heaven. 


56  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

Now,  how  does  the  Saviour  accomplish  this  work  ? 
He  does  it,  first,  by  the  verbal  instructions  of  His 
ministry  and  the  dramatic  teaching  of  His  life  and 
death.  He  does  it,  secondly,  by  the  atoning  and 
propitiatory  effect  of  His  sacrifice,  and  by  His  inter- 
cession in  heaven. 

Let  us  hold  out  attention  to  this  point  for  a  min- 
ute. 

First,  then,  we  say  Jesus  gives  us  spiritual  life 
through  the  moral  effect  of  His  teaching,  while  liv- 
ing and  while  d}ring. 

Two  sets  of  facts  or  conditions  are  necessary  to  the 
existence  of  every  kind  of  life  of  which  man,  while 
in  the  flesh,  is  capable.  The  one  set  is  subjective, 
the  other  objective.  The  one  inheres  in  his  nature 
—is  a  part  of  himself—awhile  the  other  is  external 
to  him,  and  is  separable  from  him.  Take,  for  ex- 
ample, physical  life.  Here  we  have  one  of  each  of 
these  conditions,  which  corresponds  with  the  other, 
in  the  lungs  and  the  atmosphere.  Deprive  a  man  of 
either  of  these,  and  lie  cannot  live  and  breathe  phys- 
ically. His  lungs  may  be  perfect,  but  they  will  not 
act  without  the  atmosphere.  And  the  atmosphere 
with  which  he  is  surrounded  may  be  perfectly 
adapted  to  sustain  physical  life,  but  if  he  has  no 
lungs  he  cannot  breathe  *t  and  live.  And  if  the 
lungs  are  diseased  or  the  atmosphere  is  impure, 
the  life  that  is  conditioned  on  them  will,  to  the  same 
extent,  be  unhealthy. 

Take  social  life.  Two  of  its  elements  are  confi- 
dence and  love.     To  live  socially,  man  must  breathe 


The  Mission  op  Christ.  57 

an  atmosphere  that  is  adapted  to  support  faith  and 
affection.  Now,  in  order  to  the  existence  of  this  life 
in  one  man,  he  must  have  the  power  to  confide  in 
and  love  others.  And  there  must  be  in  others  real 
or  supposed  trustworthiness  and  lovableness.  In 
other  words,  he  must  have  a.  social  nature,  and  others 
must  furnish  a  healthy  social  atmosphere  for  that 
nature  to  breathe.  Let  either  of  these  conditions  be 
lacking,  and  he  cannot  live  and  breathe  socially. 
And  so  would  it  be  universally  if  there  were  uni- 
versal lack  of  either  of  these  conditions.  And  if 
either  of  them  were  impaired,  to  the  same  extent 
would  the  life  be  that  is  based  on  them. 

This  is  true  of  the  spiritual  life  which  Jesus  came 
to  secure  for  us.  For,  in  very  important  respects, 
spiritual  life  is  only  a  higher  and  purer  type  of  so- 
cial life,  God,  as  well  as  man,  being  the  object  of 
confidence  and  love  in  the  former.  And,  of  course, 
in  order  to  its  existence,  the  same  external  and  in- 
ternal conditions  of  life  must  exist.  There  must  be 
in  us  the  power  to  confide  in  and  love  God,  and  we 
must  see  or  believe  that  He  is  worthy  of  our  confi- 
dence and  affection.  In  other  words,  we  must  have 
the  power  to  breathe  spiritually,  and  we  must  be 
surrounded  with  a  healthy  spiritual  atmosphere. 
In  the  absence  of  either  of  these  conditions,  spiritual 
life  is  impossible  to  us.  And  if  either  of  them  is  de- 
fective, so  will  be  the  life  that  is  dependent  on  them. 

Now,  to  meet  this  two-fold  necessity  of  man's  case, 
God,  in  the  beginning,  established  both  these  con- 
ditions of  spiritual  life.      In  creation  He  endowed 


58  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

man  with  the  power  to  believe  on  and  love  Him, 
together  with  all  the  other  faculties  that  inhere  in 
the  nature  of  a  moral  and  responsible  being.  In  a 
revelation  made  to  Adam,  He  unquestionably  estab- 
lished the  external  conditions  of  life.  It  is  true  we 
know  but  little  of  that  revelation,  but  it  must  have 
been  adapted  to  develop  and  sustain  man's  faith  in 
and  love  to  God.  Adam  doubtless  saw  that  God  is 
worthy  of  man's  confidence  and  affection.  And,  see- 
ing this,  he  might  have  lived,  and  breathed,  and 
grown  spiritually  forever.  And  he  did  live  and 
grow  so  long  as  these  external  conditions  of  life  re- 
mained intact. 

But  Satan  threw  a  vail  over  God's  character  and 
obscured  its  purity  and  loveliness.     He  successfully 
attacked  the  ground  of  man's  faith  in  God's  truth- 
fulness and  justice.     He  said,  substantially:  "God 
is  false.     Ye  shall  not  surely  die  in  the  day  ye  eat  of 
the  forbidden  fruit.     God  is  not  just.     He  does  not 
hate  sin  and  will  not  punish  your  disobedience.     Ye 
may    with    impunity  disregard    His    prohibition." 
He  next  struck  a  fatal  blow  at  man's  confidence  in 
God's  goodness  and  lovableness.     He  said  :  "  God  is 
selfish.     He  does  not  wish  you  to  be  wise  and  happy 
like  Himself."     His  exact  words  were:    "  God  doth 
know  that  in  the  day  ye  eat  thereof,  then  your  eyes 
shall  be  opened,  and  ye  shall  be  as  gods,  knowing 
good  and  evil."     And  having  gone  thus  far,  it  was 
very  natural  and  easy  for  him  to  go  a  step  farther 
and  persuade  man  that,  as  God  is  neither  holy  nor 
good,  He  will  not  reward  his  obedience  with  a  happy 


The  Mission  of  Christ.  59 

Immortality.     In  this  way  be  represented  God  as  a 
false  and  hateful  Deceiver,  rather  than  as  a  true  and 
unselfish  Friend— as  one  whose  threatening^  man 
need  not  fear,  and  whose  promises  he  need  not  be- 
lieve.    He  thus,  in  an  instant,  substituted  the  oxy- 
gen of  truth  with  the  hydrogen  of  falsehood,  in  the 
spiritual  atmosphere  with  which  man  was  surround- 
ed.    And  the  result  was  that  man's  spiritual  lungs 
collapsed,  his  spiritual  heart  ceased  to  beat,  and  all 
the  wheels  of  his  spiritual    machinery  stood   still. 
In  other  words,  man  listened  to  Satan's  slanderous 
falsehood  touching  God's  character,  and,  believing 
that  falsehood,  he  died  spiritually.     And  until  the 
atmosphere  of  truth  is  restored  to  him  he  can  never 
live  again.     He  may  live  on  physically;  he  may 
tower  in  intellectual   grandeur   and  strength,  but 
until  this  blight  of  falsehood  and  distrust  is  removed, 
he  cannot  breathe  spiritually — he  cannot  live  toward 
God. 

Now,  this  was  what  Jesus  Christ,  by  his  verbal 
instructions  and  dramatic  teaching  did  for  man. 
He  lifted  the  vail  from  God's  character,  and  revealed 
anew  and  more  clearly  the  glory  of  His  holiness 
and  the  richness  of  His  love.  In  this  way  he  "  de- 
stroyed the  works  of  the  devil,"  and  thus  accom- 
plished the  avowed  "purpose"  of  His  "manifesta- 
tion." And  it  was  in  this  way  that  He  justified  the 
assertion  of  St.  John,  that  "  the  Son  of  God  is  come, 
and  hath  given  us  an  understanding,  that  we  may 
know  him  that  is  true  *  *  *.  This  is  the  true 
God  and  eternal  life."     The  Son  of  God  has  indeed 


60  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

"come"  and  "given  us  an  understanding"  of,  or 
an  insight  into,  the  character  of"  Him  that  is  true," 
thus  enabling  us  to  see  and  "  know  "  that  he  is  true, 
contrary  to  Satan's  teaching.  And  we  find  also, 
that  this  knowledge  tends  to  lift  our  souls,  in  con- 
fidence and  love,  to  "  the  true  God  and  eternal  life." 
Now,  how  did  the  Messiah  impart  to  man  this 
knowledge  of  the  true  God  ? 

Passing  over  the  revelation  made  in  type, promise 
and  prophecy,  under  former  dispensations,  we  call 
attention  to  what  He  did  after  His  manifestation  in 
the  flesh. 

1.  Jesus  showed  God  to  man  in  His  life  and  exam- 
ple. When  Philip  said  to  Him,  "show  us  the  Father," 
He  replied  :  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Fa- 
ther." And  it  was  true ;  for  the  holiness  and  good- 
ness of  the  Deity  shone  out  most  gloriously  and  con- 
spicuously in  the  words  and  works  of  this  incarnate 
Jehovah.  "  The  face  "—life—"  of  Jesus  Christ  "  was 
luminous  with  "the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
glory  of  God"— the  glory  of  His  holiness  and  love- 
as  that  "  face"  reflected  "the  image  of  Him  that  is 
invisible."  In  a  word,  this  God-man  lived  the  di- 
vinity of  His  nature  and  character,  and  thus  showed 
most  plainly  and  strikingly  that  Satan  is  false  and 
wicked,  and  that  God  is  true  and  good. 

2.  Jesus  revealed  God  to  man  in  the  preaching  of 
Himself  and  His  apostles.  The  sum  of  that  preach- 
ing, as  to  God's  nature  and  character,  is  that  "God 
is  light"  and  "God  is  love"— That  He  is  pure  and 
true— free  from  the  darkness  of  falsehood  and  in- 


The  Mission  of  Christ.  61 

justice  in  His  character.  And  that  he  is  loving  and 
lovable— free  from  selfishness  and  malevolence  in 
His  nature.  The  burden  of  His  and  their  theme 
was  that  God  is  too  holy  to  do  wrong  Himself,  and 
too  just— hates  sin  too  much— to  suffer  wrong  in  oth- 
ers to  go  unpunished.  Also,  that,  at  the  same  time, 
He  is  too  full  of  love  and  goodness  not  to  do  all  in 
His  power  to  promote  man's  happiness. 

3.  Most  specially  did  Jesus  show  God  to  man  in 
His  sufferings  and  death.  In  His  crucifixion,  we 
have  the  intensest  display  of  the  divine  holiness  and 
love  that  the  Messiah  could  have  made.  In  His 
suffering  unto  death,  He  more  effectually  contradicts 
Satan  and  vindicates  the  divine  rectitude  and  good- 
ness than  he  had  none  in  His  life  and  ministry.  In 
His  agony  and  blood,  He  said  to  man  :  God  so  loves 
truth  and  hates  sin  that  He  dies  rather  than  allow 
His  word  to  fail  or  sin  to  go  unpunished.  In  His 
groans  and  death,  He  said  :  God  is  so  merciful  and 
good— so  forgets  self  and  loves  man,  that  He  gives 
His  own  life  rather  than  see  the  sinner  die— 

"To  shame  our  sins,  He  blushed  in  blood, 
He  closed  His  eyes  to  show  us  God." 

As  the  Prophet  of  God  and  "  the  Light  of  the 
world,"  He  had,  during  His  life,  dispelled  the  dark- 
ness that  had  gathered  about  the  divine  character. 
Now,  in  His  death,  as  the  Priest  of  God,  He  lifts  or 
rends  the  vail  which  had  hung  as  a  pall  over  that 
character  and  over  man's  prospects.  The  rays  of 
light  which  shone  out  so  gloriously  from  this  "Sun 


62  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

of  Righteousness/'  as  He.  rose  above  the  Mount  of 
Beatitudes  and  the  Mount  of  Sorrow,  converged  to  the 
same  point,  and  then  streamed  out  upon  an  astonish- 
ed and  gladdened  world  through  this  one  channel : 
"  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  be- 
gotten Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should 
not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life." 

Thus  it  was  that  the  dark  and  poisonous  atmos- 
phere of  falsehood  and  distrust,  with  which  Satan 
had  shrouded  God's  character,  was  displaced  by  the 
bright,  pure  and  warm  atmosphere  of  truth,  confi- 
dence and  love,  enabling  man  once  more  to  live 
spiritually.  At  least,  in  this  way  were  the  external 
conditions  of  such  life  re-established. 

We  remark  in  the  second  place,  that  Jesus  gives 
us  spiritual  life  through  the  atoning  effect  of  His 
death,  and  through  His  life  of  intercession  in 
Heaven. 

We  have  already  seen  that  by  the  atoning  effect 
of  His  sacrifice,  He  removed  the  legal  and  moral 
barriers  out  of  the  way  of  man's  living  in  the  flesh. 
Also,  that  by  the  moral  effect  of  His  teaching,  in 
life  and  in  death,  He  restored  a  healthy  atmosphere 
to  his  spiritual  nature.  It  was  necessary  for  man 
that  He  go  a  step  farther,  and  remove  from  his  soul 
the  spiritual  death  and  moral  weakness,  induced  by 
his  sin  and  fall. 

Look  at  that  poor  collier.  His  life  has  been 
choked  out  of  him  by  the  poisonous  damps  of  the 
mine.  Because  of  the  effect  of  this  deadly  atmos- 
phere, his  blood  has  been  poisoned  and  his  heart 


The  Mission  of  Christ.  63 

and  lungs  have  ceased  to  act.  He  can  never  live 
and  breathe  again  without  the  application  of  resto- 
ratives. An  extraneous  force  must  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  him.  Resuscitation  must  come  from  with- 
out. Some  friend  must  inflate  his  lungs  and  start 
his  heart  to  beating  again,  even  after  he  has  been 
lifted  to  a  pure  and  healthy  atmosphere. 

This  is  precisely  the  case  with  man's  spiritual  na- 
ture and  its  necessities  since  the  fall.      Even  after 
the  healthy  atmosphere  of  truth  has  been  restored 
to  him,  his  soul  is  still  "dead  in  trespasses  and  sins." 
His  spiritual  lungs  have  to  be  inflated  and  his  heart 
started   to   beating  by    some   external  force.       His 
spiritual  blood  must  be  purified,  and  other  effects  of 
the  fall   must  be  removed    by  a  power  other  and 
greater  than  his  own.     In  a  word,  new  life  and  new 
strength  must  be  imparted  to  his  soul  by  some  liv- 
ing and  powerful  Friend.     This  Jesus  does  for  him 
through  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  whose  gift  to 
man  He  secures  by  the  atoning  and  propitiatory  ef- 
fect  of  His  sacrifice  and    by    His   intercession  in 
Heaven.     By  virtue  of  His  death,  and  in  answer  to 
His  prayer,   the  Holy  Spirit  comes  and   sheds  the 
light  of  life  upon  man's  intellect,  breathes  the  breath 
of  life  into  his  spiritual  nostrils  and  lungs,  and  sheds 
the  light  of  love  abroad   in   his  heart.      Thus  his 
spiritual  blood  is  purified,  his  spiritual  nature  is  re- 
newed and  invigorated,  and  he  is  lilted  to  his  feet 
again,  and  enabled  to  "  walk  in  newness  of  life." 

After  imparting  this  new  life  to  the  soul,  Christ, 
through  the  agency  of  the  Spirit,  becomes  its  Sup- 


64  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

porter.  The  material  sun  not  only  awakens  nature  in- 
to a  new  life,  but, by  his  light,  heat  and  electric  power, 
he  develops  and  fosters,  supports  and  strengthens  that 
life.  So,  the  "Sun  of  Righteousness"  not  only 
"  quickens  "  man's  dead  soul  into  spiritual  life,  but 
He  sustains,  developes  and  strengthens  that  life. 
By  the  light  of  His  truth,  the  warmth  of  His  love, 
and  the  electric  power  of  His  grace,  He  enables  the 
Christian  to  grow  up  into  Christ,  his  "  Head  "  in  ail 
things.  Through  the  agency  of  the  Spirit  and  the 
instrumentality  of  His  word,  He  becomes  the  "bread 
of  life  "  and  the  "sincere  milk"  and  "strong  meat ;' 
on  which  man's  soul  feeds  and  grows.  Through 
Church  ordinances  and  other  means  of  grace,  and 
by  His  direct  influence  on  the  soul,  He  "helps  our 
infirmities"  and  "strengthens  us  with  might  by 
His  Spirit  in  the  inner  man."  Dwelling  Himself  "in 
our  hearts  by  faith,"  He  enables  us  to  become  "root- 
ed and  grounded  in  love" — strengthened  and  estab- 
lished in  the  life  of  God.  Thus  His  "strength  is 
made  perfect"  to  man  in  his  greatest  weakness  and 
want.  In  the  face  of  fiercest  temptation,  and  in  the 
hour  of  sorest  trial,  we  may  confidently  and  joyous- 
ly sing : 

"Strong  in  the  strength  which  God  supplies 
Through  His  eternal  Son." 

A  word  as  to  what  Jesus  means  by  our  having 
life  "  more  abundantly."  His  words  seem  suscepti- 
ble of  two  different  constructions,  which,  however, 
harmonize  with  each  other.     First.  He  may  mean 


The  Mission  of  Christ.  65 

that  the  volume  of  life  which  flows  through  the  pure 
soul  is  broader  and  deeper,  fuller  and  stronger,  in 
consequence  of  His  mediatorial  work  than  it  would 
havft  been  simply  because  of  His  creative  work — ■ 
That  the  intenser  display  of  God's  character,  made  in 
redemption,  develops  a  more  vigorous  and  joyous 
life  of  love  and  gratitude  than  did  the  feebler  display 
made  in  creation.  Secondly.  He  may  mean  that 
the  larger  measure  of  knowledge  and  gracious  in- 
fluence imparted  to  man  under  the  present  dispen- 
sation-—since  His  manifestation  and  death— lifts  him 
to  a  higher  plane  of  intelligence,  love  and  joy,  than 
the  one  on  which  he  lived  under  former  dispensa- 
tions— That,  as  vegetable  life  is  more  luxuriant,  vig- 
orous and  fruitful  under  a  tropical  sun  than  it  is  in 
colder  regions,  so  spiritual  life  may  and  ought  to  be 
more  vigorous  and  fruitful  under  the  directer  and 
more  powerful  rays  of  the  "Sun  of  Righteousness," 
in  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit,  than  it  was  under 
those  of  the  Father  and  the  Son. 

Bear  a  word  in  conclusion,  by  way  of  application. 

1.  If  we  owe  our  existence  in  this  world,  and  the 
possibility  and  hope  of  attaining  unto  eternal  life  in 
the  world  to  come,  solely  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  should 
we  not  gladly  consecrate  our  lives  to  his  service,  and 
live  wholly  unto  Him?  St.  Paul  thought  so.  He 
says  :  "  "We  thus  judge  that  if  one  died  for  all,  then 
were  all  dead  " — judicially  and  spiritually — "  and 
that  they  which  live  should  not  henceforth  live  unto 
themselves,  but  unto  Him  which  died  for  them  and 
rose  again." 


66  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

2.  If,  after  Jesus  has  performed  every  work  and 
brought  to  bear  every  influence  that  is  adapted  to 
develop  our  spiritual  life,  we  are  still  "dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins,"  we  are  wholly  without  excuse. 
And,  in  the  day  of  final  accounts,  we  will  be  utterly 
and  hopelessly  "  speechless." 

3.  Do  not  we,  living  in  the  dispensation   of  full 
gospel  light  and  grace,  show  great  lack  of  gratitude 
for  the  work   of  Jesus,   when   we  move  on  the  low 
plane  of  religious  doubt  and  fear,  and  are  controlled 
more  by  the  spirit  of  compromise  than  we  are  by  the 
Spirit  of  consecration  ?     Whatever  may  be  our  views 
touching   the   doctrine   of  entire   salification   or 
Christian  perfection,  we  certainly  ought  to  breathe 
a  purer  atmosphere  and  live  a  "  higher  life  "  of  reli- 
gious enjoyment   and    usefulness   than    did    those 
whose  lots  were  cast  in  a  darker  and  less  spiritual 
dispensation.      "Jesus    being  now   glorified,"    and 
"  the  Holy  Ghost,"  in  the  richness  and  fullness  of 
His  influences,  "  being  now  given,"  "  rivers  of  living 
water"  should,  for  the  refreshment  of  himself  and 
others,  "  flow  "  out  from  the  soul  of  the  consecrated 
believer. 

God  help  both  writer  and  reader  to  realize  how 
priceless  a  boon  is  life  !— help  them  to  prize  more 
highly  the  unspeakable  privilege  of  living  spiritu- 
ally and  eternally  !— help  them,  above  all  else,  to  so 
appreciate  the  work  which  Jesus  has  done  for  them, 
as  constantly  and  perseveringly  to  live  for  Him  a 
life  of  love,  purity  and  joy—a  life  of  consecration, 
activity  and  zeal! 


The  Only  Foundation.  67 


THE  ONLY  FOUNDATION.    , 

By  Solomon  Pool,  D.  D., 
Of  the  North  Carolina  Local  Ministers'  Conference. 


For  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  which  is 
Jesus  Christ.— I  Cor.  iii :  11. 

Many  persons  are  satisfied  with  a  very  carelessly 
constructed  system  of  theology.  The}7  bestow  less 
thought  upon  eternal  than  upon  temporal  concerns. 
They  are  careful  to  inform  themselves  well  in  secu- 
lar matters,  but  in  respect  to  religion  they  hastily 
assume  some  principle  and  then  hurry  away.  And 
yet  there  are  probably  very  few  who  do  not  form 
some  actual  and  positive  opinion  upon  religious 
matters,  however  carelessly  obtained.  Upon  this 
are  based  their  expectations  of  a  better  future.  Upon 
this,  as  a  foundation,  whether  false  or  true,  fanciful 
or  real,  hope  rears  her  superstructure.  All  have 
hope,  and  to  something  all  trust ;  the  pagan  to  his 
idol-gods,  the  Mohammedan  to  his  Koran,  the  Hin- 
doo to  his  Shastra,  the  Infidel  to  his  Skepticism,  the 
Pharisee  to  his  Self-righteousness,  the  Christian  to 
his  Saviour. 

The  text  is  an  expression  which  pertains  to  archi- 
tecture, and  sets  forth  the  only  true  foundation  on 
which  hope  can  build.  All  other. foundations  are 
vain  and  unreal,  for  "  other  foundation  can  no  man 
lay  than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ." 


68  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

Without  the  effort  at  anything  new  or  original,  I 
propose  in  this  discussion,  first  to  consider  a  few  of 
the  fake  foundations  which  underlie  the  hopes  of  cer- 
tain classes  to  be  met  in  an  average  American  con- 
gregation ;  and  secondly,  to  notice  the  only  true 
foundation. 

1.  False  Foundations. 

Of  course  I  shall  not  notice  the  vain  hope  of  those 
who  trust  to  idols,  for  we   have   no   pagans  in  our 
midst.     Nor  shall  I  refer  to  the  Mohammedan  faith, 
for  there  are  no  followers  of  the  false  prophet  among 
us.    I  also  pass  unnoticed  the  bold  and  daring  atheist 
who  denies  the  existence  of  his  Creator,  and  b'rain- 
lessly  affirms  that  all  things  come  by  chance!     As 
far  back  as  the  days  of  David  none  but  the  "fool" 
dared  say  such  a  thing,  and  he  only  in  his  heart. 
A  specimen  of  the  living  atheist  cannot  be  found  in 
an  average  American  congregation.     He  must  be 
dug  out  as  a  fossil  imbedded  in  the  moral  strata  of 
a  distant  epoch,  or  be  sought  among  the  rubbish 
and  debris  of  buried  centuries.     Nor  shall  I  notice 
that  rank  form  of  infidelity  which  denies  the  au- 
thenticity of  divine  revelation,  blasphemously  en- 
thrones Reason  as  the  god  of  the  universe,  and  bases 
its   hopes  of  a  better  state  upon    human    systems 
alone.     Passing  by  all  these,  I  propose  to  consider 
the    false    foundations   upon    which    three    several 
classes  in  our  own  midst  base  their  hopes  of  eternal 
happiness. 

The  first  of  these  base  their  hopes  of  salvation  on 


The  Only  Foundation.  69 

the  general  mercy  of  God,  without  reference  to  the 
atonement  of  Christ.  They  faintly  hope  that  perhaps 
all  this  talk  aboutfuture,  eternal  punishmentis  a  mis- 
take; thatperhaps  all  these  appealsfrom  thepulpitare 
only  part  of  the  preacher's  business;  that  he  presents 
his  cause  just  as  do  other  professional  men,  and  after 
all  perhaps  the  whole  exercise  is  merely  perfunctory, 
and  does  not  actually  demand  their  serious  atten- 
tion. That  the  infinite  goodness  of  God  will  cer- 
tainly rescue  them,  and  that  they  cannot  really  be 
sent  to  such  a  place  of  torment  as  the  Bible  speaks 
of.  It  is  upon  some  such  vague  conception  as  this> 
that  many  base  their  hopes  and  seem  satisfied.  With 
such  an  uncertainty  before  them  in  temporal  matter 
they  would  not  for  a  moment  think  of  embarking  in 
an  enterprise  of  trade,  and  yet  they  risk  upon  it  their 
eternal  interest.  The  frail  skiff  in  which  they  would 
not  venture  out  upon  the  serene  bosom  of  an  inland 
bay  in  time,  they  carelessly  board  and  launch  forth 
upon  the  great  ocean  of  eternity. 

The  error  of  this  class  is  manifest  first  from  the 
fact  that  their  view  is  not  in  unison  with  revealed 
truth.  This  mercy  to  which  they  trust  is  not  that 
which  has  been  offered  to  man.  It  is  true  that  God 
has  promised  his  mercy,  but  only  on  specified  condi- 
tions; those  conditions  must  be  complied  with,  or 
we  cannot  justly  claim  the  promise.  Suppose  you 
are  suffering  with  some  dreadful  malady  ;  a  benev- 
olent man  offers  to  relieve  you  ;  he  certainly  may 
reserve  the  right  of  doing  it  in  his  own  way.  It 
matters  not  whether  it  be  by  a  potion  which  yoa  are 


70  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

to  imbibe,  or  by  a  touch  of  his  hand,  or  by  the  use 
of  his  lancet,  or  by  bidding  you  employ  the  service 
of  a  third  person  to  whose  care  you  are  to  entrust 
yourself.  You  might  perhaps  have  preferred  a  dif- 
ferent method,  but  you  will  certainly  admit  that  he 
has  the  right  of  befriending  you  in  his  own  way. 
and  especially  if  that  be  the  only  efficient  wa3T.  You 
might  have  liked  it  better  perhaps  if  he  had  simply 
by  a  magic  touch,  or  by  a  motion  of  his  hand,  bidden 
den  the  awful  disease  begone,  but  say  have  you  there- 
fore any  just  ground  of  complaint  ?  In  his  benevo- 
lence and  his  wisdom  he  has  prescribed  the  best,  and 
perhaps  the  only  means  for  your  restoration.  If  you 
refuse  that,  you  die.  And  so  it  is  with  reference  to 
spiritual  things.  Man  is  diseased.  A  moral  malady 
threatens  him  with  eternal  death.  The  poison  of 
sin  is  in  his  veins.  God  has  revealed  the  plan 
whereby  he  may  be  saved.  He  bids  him  look  to  the 
Saviour  and  live.  He  offers  salvation  and  eternal 
life,  but  it  is  only  through  his  Son.  He  declares  ! 
that  the  believer  in  Jesus  shall  be  saved — that  the 
unbeliever  shall  be  damned.  That  there  is  no  other 
way  given  among  men  whereby  we  can  be  saved, 
but  by  simple  faith  in  Christ.  That  as  the  leprous 
Syrian  captain  could  only  hope  to  be  healed  by 
seven  ablutions  in  the  waters  of  Jordan,  so  the  lep- 
rosy of  sin  can  only  be  washed  away  by  atoning 
blood.  It  might  have  accorded  better  with  your 
feelings  if  God  had  allowed  you  to  dictate  the  terms 
of  your  pardon.  It  might  have  been  less  humilia- 
ting to  your  pride  to  go  directly  to  Him  for  mercy, 


The  Only  Foundation.  71 

ther  than  to  the. Babe  of  Bethlehem,  the  Man  of 
Sorrows  ;  but  the  revealed  plan  is  different,  and  in 
rejecting  that  you  scorn  his  bounty  and  insult  his 

^on. 

Then  too,  this  presumptuous  confidence  in  God's 
mercy  does  violence  to  his  character.     It  makes  him 
merciful,  but  destroys  his  justice.     It  belies  the  writ- 
ten word,  and  dismantles  Deity  of  part  of  his  glory- 
Look  at  some  of  the  declarations  of  Holy  Writ.   Re- 
rring  to  the  enemies  of  Christ,  it  is  written,  "Their 
end  is  destruction  "  (Philip,  iii :  19) ;  "  when  they 
shall  say  peace  and  safety,  then  sudden  destruction 
cometh    upon    them,    as    travail    upon    a    woman 
with  child  ;  and  they  shall  not  escape  "  (I  Thess.  v  : 
2,  3) ;  "the  Lord  Jesus  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven 
with  his  mighty  angels,  in  flaming  fire,  taking  ven- 
geance on  them  that  know  not  God,  and   obey  not 
the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus   Christ,  who  shall  be 
punished  with  everlasting  destruction  from  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Lord"  (II  Thess.  i :  7-9) ;  "  Fiery  indig- 
nation shall   devour. the    adversaries;     *     *     ven- 
geancebelongeth  unto  me,  I  will  recompense,  saiththe 
Lord"  (Heb.  x:  27-30) ;    "  Our  God  is  a  consuming 
fire"  (Heb.  xii:  29).     These  and  untold  similar  dec- 
larations of  sacred  truth,  are  made   false  by  him 
who  claims  salvation  through  the  mercy  of  God, 
outside  of  Christ. 

Do  you  complain  that  a  single  sin  cannot  justly 
deserve  eternal  punishment  ?  How  can  you  decide 
a  question,  of  whose  merits  you  may  be  utterly  igno- 
rant?     And  there  is  no  one   v\ho  can  say  he  has 


72  North  Carolina  Sermons, 

committed  but  one  sin.     The  most  moral  and  u 
right  will  not,  nor  will  they  deny  the  corruption 
their  natural  appetites  and  affections.     And  theli 
after  having  sinned  every  day,  can  they  justly  di( 
tate  the  terms  on  which  they  will  agree  to  be  pa< 
doned  ?     And  then,  in  order  to  accommodate  therji 
selves,  they  propose  to  substitute  for  the  gospel  pis) 
of  salvation,  one  of  their  own  invention,  which  b 
lies  the  written   word,  eliminates  some  of  the  su 
limest  of  the  Divine  attributes,  and  annuls  the  who 
work  of  redemption. 

But  this  is  not  all.  This  vain  confidence  in  tl: 
Divine  goodness  must  be  destructive  of  all  morali4 
and  uprightness.  The  good  and  bad  are  place! 
upon  the  same  footing.  There  is  no  incentive  t 
holiness  and  no  restraint  upon  vice.  If  the  Divin 
mercy  will  rescue  all,  then  the  floodgates  of  sin  an 
thrown  wide  open,  and  the  world  is  deluged  witi 
nncleanness.  He  who  builds  upon  such  a  founds: 
tion,  builds  upon  sand.  Hope  may  rear  upon  it  he 
beautiful  superstructure,  but,  however  attractive  an! 
charming,  the  whirlwind  of  God's  wrath  will  sweei 
it  away. 

There  is  a  second  class  who  make  a  moral  life  th 
foundation  of  their  hopes.  The  principle  they  as 
sume  is,  that  general  propriety  of  deportmen 
merits  the  salvation  of  the  soul.  They  claim  salva1 
tion  on  the  ground  of  good  works  instead  of  faith  ii 
Christ.  There  was  a  man  of  business  whose  honest; 
was  proverbial  in  the  community  where  he  ilved 
but  he  made  no  profession  of  faith  in  Christ.     H< 


The  Only  Foundation.  73 

is  approached  by  a  friend   who  kindly  enquired 
ncerning  his  hopes  for  eternity.      "  They  are  en- 
rely  satisfactory  to  me,  sir,"  he  replied.     "  Do  you 
jlieve  in  God,  and  do  you  accept  the  Bible  as  his  re- 
eled will?"  "Certainly!  do, sir" he  said.  "Do  you 
:cept  Jesus  Christ  as  your  personal  Saviour,  and  look 
r  salvation  through  the  atonement  he  has  made  ?" 
By  no  means/'  he  replied.      "  Have  you  repented 
•  your  sins?"     "Not  at  all,  sir,"  he  said.  "  Do  you 
3lieve  that  all  men  will  be  saved  ?"     "I  do  not  sir." 
'o  you  believe  that  some  will  be  lost  ?"  "  I  certainly 
b."  "Then,  sir,"  said  the  friend,  "  will  you  be  good 
Lough  to  tell  me  on  what  your  hopes  of  heaven  are 
ased  V     "Upon  this,"  he  replied  ;  "  I  have  all  my 
ife  made  it  a  point  to  be  perfectly  fair  and  honest 
i  all  my  dealings   with  my  fellow-men;    I  have 
ever  wronged,  nor  cheated,  nor  defrauded  a  human 
ieing;  no  one  living  or  dead  can  say  I  have  ever 
one  them  an  intentional  wrong;  I  have  been  gen- 
rous  and  liberal  to  the  full   extent  of  my  ability, 
,nd  am  satisfied  that  in  all  respects  my  life  has  been 
nore  moral  and  exemplary  than   that  of  many  of 
ny  professed  christian  neighbors.     I  do  not  believe, 
ir,  that  God  will  east  me  into  hell."     Now  here  was 
i  most  illustrious  example  of  what  may  be  termed 
:ommercial  integrity,  and  it  existed  without  piety. 
rhe  religious  element  was  entirely  lacking,  and  yet 
he  man  was  self-complacent  and  tranquil  upon  the 
subject  of  his  soul's  salvation.     He  had  no  love  to 
3od  in  his  heart,  and  was  therefore  unfit  for  heaven. 
He  refused  salvation  through  Christ,  was  trusting  to 


74  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

his  own  fancied  merit,  and  expecting  to  steal  into 
heaven  as  a  thief  or  a  robber. 

There  may  be  morality  without  piety ;  from  such 
I  withhold  not  the  proper  admiration,  but  it  cannot 
qualify  you  for  heaven.  All  good  works  which  do 
not  spring  from  faith  in  Christ  and  love  to  God  are 
no  more  than  so  many  splendid  sins.  But  while 
there  may  be  morality  without  piety,  yet  there  can 
be  no  genuine  piety  without  morality.  The  infidel 
Hume  never  uttered  a  more  palpable  fallacy  than 
when  he  affirmed  that  natural  honesty  of  temper  is- 
a  better  security  for  a  correct  course  of  conduct  than 
religious  principle.  The  man  whose  sinful  nature 
has  not  been  renewed,  is  like  him  who  carries  gun- 
powder in  his  pocket;  it  is  liable  at  any  moment  to 
ignite  and  blow  him  into  ruin.  Sin  is  gunpowder,, 
temptation  the  spark.  Piety  is  the  only  sure  safe- 
guard of  virtue.  The  superstructure  which  hope 
rears  upon  a  moral  life  may  be  pleasing  to  the  eye 
and  win  the  admiration  of  the  world,  but  the  foun- 
dation is  insecure,  and  it  cannot  stand  the  test  of  the 
final  day  ;  for  "  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay 
than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ." 

The  third  class  whom  I  notice  base  their  religious- 
hopes  on  sensibility.  The  former  class  based  theirs 
upon  conduct,  these  upon  emotion.  Those  upon 
what  they  do,  these  upon  what  they  feel.  They  love 
to  meet  with  the  people  of  God  in  public  worship; 
their  hearts  glow,  and  their  spirits  are  stirred  within 
them,  as  they  engage  in  the  outward  formal  services, 
oi  the  sanctuary,  or  listen  to  the  pointed  appeals  of 


The  Only  Foundation.  75 

the  preacher  ;  and  yet  all  the  while  they  may  have 
no  evangelistic  faith,  or  engrossing  affection  for  the 
Saviour.  As  respects  vital  godliness  they  may  be  as 
soundly  asleep  as  if  hushed  into  the  insensibility  of 
death.  These  feelings,  it  is  true  may  be,  and  often 
are,  concomitants  of  piety,  and  so  is  morality.  They 
may  be  part  of  the  superstructure,  but  not  its  foun- 
dation. The  grand  fabric  of  christian  character 
rests  upon  a  firmer  foundation  than  mere  sensi- 
bility. 

You  may  take  the  atheist,  or  infidel,  or  Moham- 
medan, or  pagan  who  has   never  heard   of  God  or 
Christ  or  heaven  or  hell,  and  his   spirits  will  be 
aroused  under  strains  of  melody,  or  in  view  of  scenes 
of  beauty  and  sublimity.      Let    him  stroll  in  the 
golden  blush   of  a  serene  May   morning  amid  the 
meadows  and  lawns  besprinkled  with  blue  and  pink 
and  crimson  and  saffron  ;  let  him  ascend  the  moun- 
tain side  and  behold  the  vast  lineaments  of  creation, 
the  distant  glimpses  of  cottage  and  field,  of  waving 
forest  and  winding  stream,  of  rushing  mountain  tor- 
rent and  overhanging  glacier;  would  it  bean  evi- 
dence of  piety  if  his  feelings  were  enkindled  at  such 
a  perspective  as  that?     Then  let  his  eyes  be  raised 
to  behold  the  shining  canopy   with  its  millions  of 
blazing  suns  and  silver  moons  and  gleaming  stars," 
let  him  fully  realize  that  these  are  not  dreary,  un- 
peopled solitudes,  but  that  they  all  are  magnificently 
garnished  houses  of  sentient,  intelligent  beings  like 
himself,  and  he  would  need  no  piety  to  elevate  his 
spirits  in  the  midst  of  such  a  sublime  contemplation. 


76  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

And  so  a  man  may  be  stirred  by  the  recital  of  some 
deed  of  injustice  or  of  benevolence ;  he  may  be 
aroused  by  force  of  a  logical  argument;  he  may  be 
moved  to  tears  by  a  remembrance  of  his  own  un- 
grateful acts,  and  yet  conscience  may  slumber  on, 
repentance  may  not  be  exercised,  and  faith  may  as 
}7et  have  found  no  lodgment  in  his  soul.  So  the 
feelings  may  be  stirred  b}7  the  sacred  services  of  the 
sanctuary,  when  heaven  with  its  glories  is  painted 
in  words  that  breathe  and  thoughts  that  burn,  and 
yet  the  love  of  God  may  never  have  taken  possession 
of  the  heart.  All  religious  emotion,  outsideof  Christ, 
is  sheer  sentimentalism,  and  no  sure  basis  of  reli-? 
gious  hope. 

Then  build  upon  the  Rock  of  Ages. 

Thus  saith  the  Lord  :  "Behold  I  lay  in  Zion  for  a 
foundation,  a  stone,  a  tried  stone,  a  precious  corner- 
stone, a  sure  foundation."  This  stone,  rejected  and 
set  at  naught  of  builders,  has  "become  the  head- 
stone of  the  corner."  It  is  the  foundation  of  "Apos- 
tles and  Prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the 
chief  corner  stone."  It  is  so  strong  and  firm  and 
broad  that  all  men  may  build  securely  upon  it.  The 
storms  cannot  shake  it,  the  floods  cannot  unsettle  it, 
the  tooth  of  time  cannot  crumble  it.  This,  and  this 
alone,  is  the  only  true  foundation  of  religious  hope — 
simple  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  a  renunciation  of  every 
other  refuge  and  a  confident  reliance  upon  him  alone 
for  salvation. 

It  is  related  that  when  Johnson,  the  prince  of 


The  Only  Foundation.  77 

English  writers,  was  about  to  die,  he  became  deeply 
concerned  for  his  future.  At  a  distance  there  lived 
a  pious  old  man  in  whom  he  had  great  confidence, 
A  messenger  was  dispatched  to  the  old  christian 
with  the  request  that  he  would  come  quickly  and 
instruct  the  dying  man  in  the  plan  of  salvation, 
The  message  was  delivered,  but  the  old  christian 
simply  took  pencil  and  paper  and  wrote,  "  Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 
He  enclosed  and  sealed  it,  and  sent  it  to  the  dying 
man.  The  accomplished  scholar  seized  the  paper, 
broke  the  seal  and  read  ;  but,  disappointed  and  im- 
patient, threw  it  aside,  and  bade  the  messenger  hasten 
back  and  again  entreat  the  old  christian  to  come  to 
his  bedside  and  teach  him  the  way  of  life.  Again 
the  message  was  delivered,  and  again  the  old  chris- 
tian replied  ({ Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world."  The  dying  man  read  it 
once  more.  The  truth,  like  sunlight,  flashed  upon 
him.  He  looked,  he  saw,  he  trusted,  and  was  saved, 
I  would  tell  you  then 

"That  same  old  stoiy, 

Of  unseen  things  above, 
Of  Ji'sus  and  his  glory, 

Of  Jesus  and  his  love. 
I  love  to  tell  the  story, 

More  wonderful  it  seems 
Than  all  the  golden  fancies 

Of  all  our  jewelled  dreams. 
I  love  to  tell  the  stoiy, 

'Twill  be  my  theme  in  glory, — 
To  i  ell  the  old,  old  story 

Of  Jesus  and  his  love.'' 


78  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

A  mother  once  took  her  idle  boy  who  would  not 
learn  and  shut  him  in  a  room  alone.  In  his  hand 
she  placed  the  open  book  and  bade  him  study.  An 
hour,  and  she  returned.  The  boy  had  thrown  his 
book  aside  and  was  playing  with  the  toys  that  lay 
scattered  upon  the  floor,  or  gazing  at  the  paintings 
which  hung  upon  the  walls  of  the  room.  She  re- 
moved from  the  room  every  toy,  and  every  object 
which  she  thought  could  attract  his  attention.  An 
hour,  and  she  returned  again.  He  was  amusing 
himself  with  the  pictures  of  birds  and  flowers  upon 
the  pages  of  his  book.  So  she  tore  out  the  single 
leaf  which  contained  his  lesson,  and  placing  simply 
that  in  his  hand  bade  him  keep  his  eye  upon  it.  So 
taking  from  your  view  every  intervening  object, 
every  earthly  attraction,  every  worldly  toy  and  pic- 
ture, and  every  fond,  vain  hope,  I  would  point  you 
simply  to  "the  Lamb  of  God  thattaketh  away  the  sin 
of  the  world." 

I  see  two  men  go  forth  to  build.  One  is  wise,  the 
other  foolish.  Each  rears  a  noble  structure  and 
adorns  it  with  all  the  charms  and  embellishments 
of  taste  and  art.  In  the  outward  form  and  appear- 
ance of  the  two  edifices  I  detect  scarcely  a  shade  of 
difference.  Each  man,  with  self-complacency  and 
satisfaction,  enters  and  for  a  time  resides.  But  by 
and  by  the  heavens  grow  black  with  threatening 
storm-clouds.  The  rain  descends,  the  tempest  beats, 
the  weird  winds  whistle,  the  floods  rush  on,  and  all 
is  hidden  from  my  eyetin  the  gathered  gloom.  At 
length  the  morning  sunlight  breaks  upon  the  scene, 


On  Heaven.  7& 

and  I  look  again.  One  building  lies  a  heap  of  ruins  > 
it  was  built  upon  the  sand.  The  other  still  lifts  its- 
towering  height  in  bold  defiance  of  the  storm.  It 
has  baffled  the  tempest  and  the  flood,  for  it  was 
founded  upon  a  rock.  Hark  !  from  the  dismantled 
relics  of  the  one,  and  from  the  abiding  glory  of  the 
other,  there  rings  out  the  lesson  of  the  text :  "Other 
foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  which 
is  Jesus  Christ." 


ON    HEAVEN. 

By  Rev.  T.  W.  Guthrie, 
Of  the  North  Carolina  Conference. 


And  the  end  everlasting  life — Romans  vi :  22. 

In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions.  If  it  were  not  so,  I  would 
not  have  told  you  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you.  And  i  f  I  go  and  pre" 
pare  a  place  for  you,  I  will  come  again  and  receive  you  unto  myself; 
that  where  I  am,  thereye  may  be  also.— St.  John  xiv  :  2,  3. 

These  texts  bring  to  our  attention  a  consummation 
of  blessedness  of  which  we,  in  the  present  life,  can 
form  no  complete  apprehension.  We  know  nothing 
of  the  future  world,  beyond  that  which  God  has 
been  pleased  to  reveal.  None  of  us  have  ever  been 
to  heaven,  and  therefore  by  experience  we  know 
nothing  of  the  glory  of  the  place,  and  the  habits  of 
its  inhabitants.  We  have  seen  no  one  who  has  been 
there,  and  therefore  can  gain  no  knowledge  from  the 


80  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

experience  of  others.  Only  one  of  our  race  ever  was 
there  and  returned,  and  he  did  not  know  whether 
he  went  there  in  the  body  or  out  of  it.  He  says  he 
was  "  caught  up  into  the  third  heaven,"  beyond  the 
region  of  the  stars — the  place  of  angelic  habitation* 
where  God  displays  his  undimmed  glory.  But  we 
are  none  the  wiser  on  account  of  what  he  saw  and 
heard.  He  says  it  was  "  unlawful"  or  improper  for 
him  to  publish  what  he  saw.  I  suppose  human  lan- 
guage to  be  too  poor  for  such  a  purpose.  The  things 
and  scenes  of  heaven  could  be  adequately  described 
only  by  a  language,  grander  and  nobler  than  any 
known  to  this  world.  Had  the  apostle  attempted  to 
describe  what  he  saw  and  heard,  his  statement  would 
probably  have  been  the  basis  of  hopeless  error  or  in- 
curable skepticism.  In  the  wisdom  of  God  he  was 
restrained  from  giving  us  the  information  for  which 
curiosity  would  ask.  The  remarks  we  propose  to 
make  on  this  interesting  subject  we  will  draw  from 
the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  either  by  positive  state- 
ment or  by  inference. 

Heaven  is  a  place — a  local  habitation.  For  proof 
of  this  we  refer  to  the  Bible.  Jesus  says:  "I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  you.  And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a 
place  for  you,  I  will  come  again  and  receive  you 
unto  myself;  that  where  I  am  ye  may  be  also."  The 
apostle  says  :  "  We  know  that  if  this  earthly  house 
of  our  tabernacle  were  dissolved,  we  have  a  build- 
ing of  God,  an  house  not  made  with  hands  eternal 
in  the  heavens."  And,  "so  shall  we  be  ever  present 
with  the  Lord." 


On  Heaven.  81 

The  human  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was 
taken  up  into  heaven,  and  he,  in  that  body,  sitteth 
on  the  right  hand  of  the  Father  to  make  "interces- 
sion for  us.  Now,  it  is  not  supposable  that  His  hu- 
man body,  though  glorified,  is  so  changed  as  to  be 
omnipresent,  but  must  occupy  only  one  place  at  the 
same  time,  and  therefore  must  have  a  local  habita- 
tion. We  are  informed  that  both  Enoch  and  Elijah 
were  translated,  soul  and  body,  and  doubtless  were 
carried  into  the  heavenly  state,  having  the  same 
change  wrought  in  them  at  the  time  of  their  trans- 
lation that  will  be  wrought  in  all  the  good  people 
who  finally  get  to  the  heavenly  home.  And  as  their 
bodies  are  incapable  of  diffusing  themselves  so  as  to 
occupy  all  space  at  the  same  time,  so  there  must  be 
a  place  at  which  they  dwell  and  which  becomes 
their  home. 

We  do  not  desire  to  be  understood  as  teaching 
that  those  who  reach  the  heavenly  world  are  to  be 
always  confined  to  one  place  out  of  which  they  are 
never  to  go.  So  far  from  this,  we  may  reasonably 
infer  that  the  vast  and  boundless  universe  of  God 
will  be  open  to  their  entrance,  and  probably  there 
will  be  no  world  so  distant  that  they  cannot  reach 
and  inspect  it.  Angels  may  possibly  be  their  guides 
in  roaming  through  the  sunlit  paths  of  God's  Uni- 
verse, and  in  the  cycles  of  ages  all  the  worlds  now 
known  to  astronomers  may  be  visited  in  person  by 
the  redeemed  of  the  Lord,  and  converse  may  be  had 
with  their  countless  tribes  of  inhabitants  ;  and  jour- 
neys may  be  made  to  other  worlds  in  the  far  distant 


82  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

space  of  God's  boundless  domain,  the  existence  of 
which  has  not  entered  in  to  the  dreams  of  astron- 
omy. 

Heaven  is  also  a  state  of  conscious  being.  The 
souls  of  the  good  when  they  leave  their  bodies  at 
death,  do  not  go  into  a  sleep  of  unconsciousness  un- 
til awakened  by  the  judgment  trump,;  but  enter  at 
once  into  a  conscious  and  happy  state  of  being. 
They  know  themselves  to  be  the  same  beings,  who 
have  passed  through  the  toils  and  trials  of  the  pres- 
ent life,  and  triumphantly  made  their  wTay  to  their 
present  home.  The  changes  which  have  taken 
place  in  them,  whatever  they  may  be,  do  not  destroy 
their  identity  or  interfere  with  the  functions  of  mem- 
ory or  consciousness.  They  not  only  know  them- 
selves but  they  also  know  others  around  them.  Faces 
with  which  they  were  familiar  here,  having  pre- 
served their  general  custom  and  features,  are  known 
there,  and  happy  greetings  and  reunions  are  ex- 
changed between  mutual  friends  who  meet  on  that 
distant  shore,  as  together  they  sit  down  under  the 
shade  of  the  trees,  or  walk  along  the  banks  of  the 
crystal  stream. 

At  times  the  question  arises  in  every  mind,  where 
is  heaven  ?  Where  is  the  special  future  home  of  the 
good  ?  The  exact  place  God  has  not  been  pleased 
to  reveal.  But  one  thing  we  are  sure  of,  it  is  some- 
where in  the  material  universe  of  God  as  now  created. 
Astronomers  tell  us,  by  the  use  of  telescopes,  they 
have  discovered  that  there  are  five  thousand  suns, 
including  our  own,  which  are  the  centers  of  solar 


On  Heaven.  83 

systems  as  our  sun  is  the  center  of  our  solar  system  ; 
and  that  the  sesuns  with  their  planets,  moons,  satel- 
lites, and  all  which  contribute  to  their  completeness, 
are  moving  around  a  common  center  in  regular  el- 
lipses. What  that  center  is  we  cannot  exactly  tell ; 
it  has  been  suggested  that  probably  it  is  God's  throne 
or  the  world  spoken  of  in  the  Bible  as  heaven.  This 
may  be  true  or  not;  we  have  no  means  of  knowing. 
But  our  philosophy  unquestionably  teaches  that 
there  must  be,  somewhere  in  the  universe,  some 
great  world  out  of  which,  in  consequence  of  its  size 
and  position,  goes  influences  of  sufficient  force  to 
preserve  the  equilibrium  in  nature.  If  the  teach- 
ings of  philosophy  on  this  matter  be  true,  then  this 
world  is  the  seat  of  that  city  of  walls,  gates  and  tem- 
ples which  the  apostle  John  saw.  Whether  the  con- 
ceptions of  astronomy  as  stated  before  be  true  or  not, 
it  is  about  the  grandest  thought  that  ever  found  a 
wray  into  the  human  mind. 

In  the  Bible  we  are  taught  that  heaven  is  a  state 
of  conscious  perpetual  union  with  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  The  happiness  of  the  Christian  in  this  life 
is  derived  from  the  fact  of  his  spiritual  union  by 
faith  with  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  But  here  the 
christian's  happiness  is  often  alloyed  by  causes  which 
have  their  existence  from  within  as  from  without 
him.  In  the  very  nature  of  things,  it  is  not  and 
cannot  be  perfect.  But  in  the  heavenly  state  none 
of  these  causes  exist,  therefore  the  happiness  is  com- 
plete because  the  union  is  complete.  The  beauty 
and  magnificence  of  the  place  does  not  necessarily 


84  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

constitute  the  happiness  of  its  inhabitants.  The 
cause  is  in  the  fact  of  their  fitness  in  nature  to  be 
there.  Without  this  fitness  the  grandeur  of  the 
place  would  be  but  the  mockery  of  their  misery. 
Reason  teaches  that  there  must  be  a  similarity  and 
agreement  between  the  faculty  of  enjoyment  and 
the  object  to  be  enjoyed;  therefore  without  the  spir- 
itual nature  which  unites  the  christian  to  Jesus 
Christ  and  makes  him  one  with  time,  he  could  not 
be  happy,  even  in  heaven,  but  with  it  he  would  not 
be  miserable  anywhere. 

Heaven  is  a  state  of  the  highest  possible  enjoy- 
ment. The  enjoyment  is  not  animal  or  sensual,  but- 
intellectual  and  spiritual.  Jesus  on  one  occasion, 
speaking  of  the  future  life,  said  to  the  Jews,  that  in 
"the  resurrection  they  neither  marry  nor  are  given 
in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  which  are  in 
heaven." 

From  this  statement  we  understand  that  the  rela- 
tions which  the  saints  sustained  to  each  other  on 
earth  do  not  exist  in  the  heavenly  state.  They  re- 
member that  they  were  husbands  and  wives,  parents 
and  children,  and  brothers  and  sisters,  in  the  world 
out  of  which  they  have  come,  and  all  the  pleasures 
which  such  memories  afford  are  theirs  in  their  full- 
ness, but  now  the}r  are  saints  and  priests  unto  God 
and  the  Lamb  forever.  They  are  brought  into  di- 
rect contact  and  intercourse  with  all  that  is  pure 
and  good  in  God's  universe.  They  being  holy,  and 
all  around  them  possessing  a  like  nature,  is'  the 
ground  of  their  enjoyment.     There  is  nothing  any- 


On  Heaven.  85 

where  to  mar  the  beauty  or  jar  upon  the  symphony 
of  their  natures.  They  once  had  pain,  sorrow  and 
tears,  but  now  all  this  is  passed  never  to  return. 
Many  of  them  were  of  obscure  parentage  and  lowly 
in  condition,  and  all  were  once  suffering  children  of 
humanity.  Now  they  are  no  longer  servants  and 
laborers,  but  sons  and  daughters  of  God,  and  as  such 
they  are  of  his  household,  and  entitled  to  all  the 
privileges  and  emoluments  of  the  family.  Upon 
their  head  once  was  placed  the  thorny  crown  of  sor- 
row, and  their  brow  was  wrinkled  with  pain,  and 
their  hearts  were  pressed  with  the  burdens  they  were 
compelled  to  carry  ;  now  upon  their  heads  is  placed 
the  crown  of  a  king,  and  upon  their  brows  is  the 
bloom  of  youth  and  beauty,  and  in  their  hearts  is 
the  song  of  joy.  "  No  chilling  wind  or  poisonous 
breath"  ever  reaches  them  now.  The  pains  of  death 
are  passed  forever.  Jesus  wipes  the  last  tear  from 
their  eyes,  and  bears  away  the  last  sigh  from  their 
hearts. 

^  Theintellectual  enjoyments  of  heaven  will  be  of  the 
most  pure  and  elevating  kind.  The  mind  will  be  free 
of  the  weights  and  clogs  which  swing  around  it  in  this 
life,  and  will  rise  up  to  the  joyful  contemplation  of 
God  in  his  nature,  his  ways,  and  his  righteous  govern- 
ment. The  plan  of  God  in  the  redemption  of  the 
human  race  will  be  unfolded  to  the  enraptured 
mind.  The  parts  of  that  plan  which  are  now  so 
mysterious  and  hard  to  be  understood  will 'be  made 
clear  in  the  light  of  the  heavenly  state.  The  ways 
of  God  as  developed  in  Providence,  now  so  difficult 


86  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

of  comprehension,  will  be  fully  explained.  The 
mind  will  be  able  to  see  the  unity  and  harmony  of 
all  things  which  now  seem  to  be  so  contradictory 
and  inconsistent.  Every  step  which  the  mind-takes 
in  its  investigations,  will  bring  to  it  new  and  mul- 
tiplied joys,  and  at  the  same  time  expand  and  de- 
velop its  powers  far  beyond  what  we  in  this  life  are 
able  to  conceive.  Besides  all  this,  the  society  of 
which  each  saint  will  constitute  a  part,  will  be  of 
the  most  pure  and  genial  character.  No  jarring  el- 
ements will  be  there  to  mar  its  harmony,  or  disturb 
its  peace.  No  envying,  no  jealousies,  no  strifes  and 
no  note  of  discord,  will  be  felt,  seen  or  heard,  in  all 
that  glory  land.  Prophets,  patriarchs,  apostles, 
priests,  kings  and  saints,  of  every  age,  of  every  sex, 
and  from  every  clime,  will  mingle  together  in  terms 
of  the  most  intimate  love  and  friendship.  Over  all 
this  countless,  but  happy  multitude  Jesus  will  reign 
as  the  king  immortal  and  eternal.  His  government 
will  be  most  benignant  and  every  one  of  the  gov- 
erned will  be  more  and  more  enraptured  on  the  re- 
flection that  this  grand  and  glorious  Being,  who 
now  wears  the  diadem  of  universal  empire,  is  the 
common  brother  of  each.  Angels,  archangels,  cher- 
ubim, seraphim,  and  all  the  ranks  of  God's  hosts 
who  kept  their  first  estate,  will  be  the  bosom  com- 
panions of  these  children  of  humanit}-  who  are  now 
saved  by  divine  grace.  Their  surroundings  will  be 
on  the  grandest  and  most  magnificent  scale.  Man- 
sions and  palaces  built  of  the  most  costty  material, 
and  furnished  in  the  most  gorgeous  splendor,  will 


On  Heaven.  87 

be  the  places  of  their  immediate  habitation.  Crowns 
more  brilliant  than  ten  thousand  suns,  will  be  placed 
■upon  the  head  of  each.  Robes  whiter  and  more 
'costly  than  any  worn  b}r  the  most  fortunate  or  noble 
of  earth,  will  adorn  each  one  of  the  saints.  Jewelled 
palms  of  victory  will  be  placed  in  each  hand.  And 
thrones  decked  with  jewels  more  costly  and  brilliant 
than  diamonds  or  rubies  will  be  presented  to  these, 
now  made  kings  and  priests  unto  God  and  the  Lamb 
forever.  Each  heart  will  be  attuned  to  the  sympho- 
nies of  the  loving  song  of  redemption.  And  the 
voice  of  praise  as  it  comes  up  from  the  myriads  that 
surround  the  throne  of  God,  will  swell  and  roll  out 
over  the  plains  of  that  glorious  land  as  the  sound  of 
many  waters,  and  the  burstings  of  mighty  thunders. 
Oh  happy  people  !  Oh  glorious  inheritance  ! 
•f'  Heaven  is  a  place  of  the  most  delightful  employ- 
ment. The  most  common  and  almost  universal  idea 
of  heaven  is  that  it  is  a  place  of  rest.  Go  ask  some 
suffering,  toiling  child  of  humanity,  what  is  his 
thought  of  heaven,  and  he  will  tell  you  rest,  rest. 
And  this  view  presents  it  before  his  mind  as  furnish- 
ing the  most  attractions,  and  as  containing  the 
•strongest  inducements  and  motives  for  striving  to 
get  there.  It  is  very  pleasant  to  the  many  toilers  of 
earth,  to  feel  that  there  is  a  place  where  the  weary 
may  find  rest, and  where  the  wicked  no  more  trouble. 
Still  that  is  not  the  whole  of  the  story.  There  is  a 
more  elevated  and  splendid  fortune  awaiting  those 
who  gain  that  good  world.  Its  inhabitants  are  not  to  sit 
down  in  absolute  idleness.     No ;  God  has  nrovided 


38  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

something  better  than  that.  They  are  to  be  actively 
employed  and  yet  their  labors  will  not  fatigue  them. 
They  have  dropped  the  cumbrous  clay  which  attach- 
ed to  them  in  this  life,  and  they  are  now  spiritual 
beings,  and  consequently  incapable  of  fatigue.  They 
do  not  tire  in  their  round  of  labor  and  toil.  One  of 
their  employments  will  be  to  sing.  This  they  learn 
as  by  intuition.  They  all  sing  the  song  of  Moses 
and  the  Lamb  which  we  suppose  is  the  song  of  re- 
demption. The  whole  company  is  formed  into  a 
grand  choir,  and  all  along  the  ranks  no  note  of  dis- 
cord is  struck.  Each  knows  the  chorus  and  they  all 
sing  in  the  utmost  harmony  and  with  the  spirit  and 
the  understanding.  St.  John  says  he  saw  the  mul- 
titude and  heard  the  singing.  It  was  a  burst  of 
praise  that  rolled  over  the  jewelled  walls  of  the  city 
and  fell  upon  his  ear  as  he  stood  on  the  distant  Isle 
of  Patmos.  But  singing  is  not  all.  Their  minds 
are  quickened.  Enquiry  is  on  the  wing.  They 
look  over  the  vast  fields  of  creation,  and  the  old 
longing  of  which  they  had  the  earnest  in  this  life 
stirs  their  souls,,  World  after  world  rises  to  their 
view,  and  the  desire  to  visit  them  becomes  intense. 
And  when  the  permission  is  given,  they  leave  the 
golden  streets,  the  splendid  mansions,  thrones  and 
palaces  for  a  season.  With  their  harps  of  gold  in 
their  hands,  and  the  song  of  praise  on  their  tongues, 
they  scale  the  jewelled  walls  or  pass  out  through  the 
pearly  gates,  they  take  their  march  through  the  track- 
les  ether.  Flying  upon  wings  as  angels,  or  sweeping 
along  in  chariots  of  flaming  fire,  they  reach  some 


On  Heaven.  89 

■distant  world  and  folding  their  wings  for  a  time 
upon  the  crest  of  some  tall  mountain,  they  look 
down  upon  its  toiling  millions,  as  they  are  moving 
to  their  daily  labors,  or  along  the  banks  of  its  silvery 
streams,  or  the  shores  of  its  glittering  lakes  and 
oceans.  Its  animate  life,  its  salubrious  atmosphere, 
and  its  loamy  soil,  together  with  its  mineral  wealth 
becomes  to  them  a  source  of  rapturous  and  delight- 
ful study.  And  mounting  in  the  train  of  some  pass- 
ing comet  as  its  swiftly  glides  on  its  way  near  by, 
they  move  with  the  veloeity  of  light.  Passing  suns 
and  stars  and  systems  of  worlds,  they  sweep  out  into 
the  immensity  of  space  far  beyond  the  orbit  of  the 
most  distant  world, — far  out  into  the  immensity  of 
darkness,  into  which  as  yet  the  light  of  no  world 
has  penetrated,  and  the  voice  of  no  sound  has  broke 
upon  the  silence  which  has  reigned  from  all  etprnity. 
And  lost  in  wonder  as  astonishment  they  await  the 
active  and  coming  power  of  God.  Soon  the  light  of 
a  new  world  just  pushed  from  the  creative  hand  of 
its  Maker,  breaks  upon  their  enraptured  vision,  and 
as  the  sons  of  Ood,  they  raise  anew  the  song  of  praise. 
And  so  million  on  millions  of  ages  multiplied,  the 
praise  of  God  shall  their  rapturous  tongues  employ. 
Shall  I  be  in  that  number  ?  Reader  will  you  ? 
The  Lord  grant  we  may. 


90  North  Carolina  Sermons. 


THE  UNREASONABLENESS    AND  SINFUL- 
NESS OF   MAN'S   ATTITUDE 
TOWARDS  GOD. 

By  Rev.  John  S..  "W atkins, 
Pastor  First  Presbyterian  Church,,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 


Then  began  he  to  speak  to  the  people  this  parable:  A  certain  man- 
planted  a  vineyard,  and  let  it  forth  to  husbandmen,  and  went  into  a 
far  country  for  a  long  time*  And  at  the  season  he  sent  a  servant  to> 
the  husbandmen,  that  they  should  give  him  of  the  fruit  of  the  viner 
yard  :  but  the  husbandmen  beat  him,  and  sent  him  away  empty.  And 
again  he  sent  another  servant:  and  they  beat  him  also,  and  entreated; 
him  shamefully,  and  sent  him  away  empty.  And  again  he  sent  a  third: 
and  they  wounded  him  also,  and  cast  him  out,  Then  said  the  lord  of 
the  vineyard,  What  shall  I  do  ?  I  will  send  my  beloved  son  :  it  may 
be  they  will  reverence  him  when  they  see  him.  But  when  the  hus- 
bandmen saw  him,  they  reasoned  among  themselves,  saying,  This  is- 
the  heir  r  come,,  let  us  kill  him,  that  the  inheritance  may  be  ours.  So 
they  cast  him  out  of  the  vineyard,  and  killed  him.  What  therefore 
shall  the  lord  of  the  vineyard  do  unto  them  ?.  He  shall  come  and  de- 
stroy these  husbandmen,  and  shall  give  the  vineyard  to  others.— Luke 
xx :  9-1  li. 

We  will  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over  us.— Luke  xix  :  14. 

Our  Saviour  in  the  parable  of  the  wicked  hus- 
bandmen has  thrown  upon  the  canvass  a  picture, 
which  represents  God's  infinite  love  and  mercy  seek- 
ing to  restore  fallen,  guilty  man,  and  in  contrast, 
man's  cruel  and  wicked  treatment  of  God.  The 
"  householder "  is  the  great  God  who  is  repre- 
sented as  mercifully  employing  ail  possible  means- 
for  the  cultivation  of  his  vineyard.  The  passage 
has  more  immediate  reference  to  the  Jews.  God  sep- 
arated his  ancient  people  from  other   nations,,  and 


Man's  Sinful  Attitude.  91 

bestowed  upon  them  countless  privileges.  He  gave 
them  special  revelations — the  law,  the  covenants, 
and  sent  them  prophets  and  teachers.  Notwith- 
standing God's  mercies  to  Israel,  they  hardened  their 
hearts  against  Him — they  despised  His  ordinances, 
and  refused  to  listen  to  His  prophets — and  reached 
the  climax  of  wickedness  in  slaying  His  Son,  and 
thrusting  Him  out  of  His  own  vineyard.  Christ  is 
still  receiving  much  the  same  treatment — and  men 
are  outraging  the  efforts  of  mercy  to  save  them.  In 
the  parable  of  the  pounds,  Christ  is  represented  as 
going  to  His  own  kingdom  and  distributing  gifts 
which  are  to  be  used.  But  his  citizens  hated  him, 
saying,  "  We  will  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over 
us." 

The  subject  which  these  passages  open  up  to  us  is 
this:  The  unreasonableness  and  sinfulness  of 
man's  attitude  towards  God. 

I.  This  unreasonableness  and  sinfulness  appear, 
in  the  first  place,  in  the  quiet  and  nonchalant  way 
in  which  man  entirely  ignores  the  rights  of  God. 
He  ignores  God's  rights  as  creator.  He  often  for- 
gets that  the  vineyard  in  which  he  lives,  whose  fruits 
he  enjoys,  is  God's  vineyard.  He  lives  and  acts  as 
though  it  were  his  own  creation  and  his  own  poses- 
sion — when  a  moment's  reflection  must  tell  him  that 
he  is  only  a  tenant.  The  firmament  over  us  with  its 
arch  of  beauty,  the  heavenly  bodies  that  roll  and 
sparkle  above  us,  and  the  earth  beneath  our  feet 
overspread  with  every  object  of  attraction  are  God's 
empire.      Every   creature  holds  his  being,  his  life 


92  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

from  Him.  The  air  we  breathe,  the  force  that  ani- 
mates our  frames,  the  light  that  shines,  are  all  ema- 
nations from  the  Creator's  goodness.  God's  creation 
of  us  gives  Him  an  absolute  right  in  us.  The  fact 
of  creation  makes  us  His  by  an  invulnerable  title. 
There  is  no  creature  God  has  made  that  is  not  in- 
debted to  Him,  every  moment,  for  everything.  Has 
not  God  a  right  to  His  own  ?  That  which  we  make 
out  of  materials  furnished  to  our  hands,  we  claim 
as  our  own.  And  we  do  not  recognize  God's  rights 
in  that  which  comes  directly  from  His  hands.  We 
attempt  to  expel  the  great  householder,  and  call  the 
inheritance  ours. 

We  ignore  God's  rights  as  Father.  The  earthly 
parent  who  is  kind  and  just  and  faithful,  feels  that 
he  has  a  right  to  claim  the  obedience,  love  and  re- 
spect of  his  children.  From  existing  relations,  he 
is  their  constituted  protector,  guide  and  support. 
While  we  claim  and  exercise  this  right  we  do  not 
recognize  God's  right  to  claim  our  obedience,  love 
and  respect. 

Man  ignores  God's  personal  rights.  God  has  a  right 
to  protect  and  uphold  His  honor  and  glory — rights 
which  men  entirely  ignore.  We  recognize  our  right 
to  protect  our  own  honor  and  good  name.  When 
men  slander  and  curse  us,  or  rob  us  of  our  posses- 
sions, we  demand  immediate  redress.  And  we  have 
no  opinion  of  the  man  who  has  no  regard  for  his 
honor — who  docs  not  feel  indignant  at  slander  and 
abuse.  And  yet  men  can  curse  God,  and  abuse  God's 
property,  yea  seize  it  as  their  own,  and  cling  to  it 


Man's  Attitude.  93 

until  it  is  wrested  from  them  by  death— and  think 
it  all  right  and  proper  in  the  Almighty  to  take  no 
notice  of  it.  We  expect  God  to  exercise  infinite  for- 
bearance where  we  would  have  no  patience  whatever. 
Man  will  challenge  his  fellow-man  and  fight  a  duel 
over  some  little  point  of  honor.  He  will  try  to  take 
away  the  life  of  his  fellow-man  for  casting  a  stain  on 
his  character.  And  that  same  person  will  expect  Al- 
mighty God  to  remain  still  and  patient  while  he  curses 

Him,  and  insults  Him  through  a  whole  lifetime. 

Man  ignores  God's  rights  as  Magistrate.     God 
as  supreme  magistrate  and  law-giver  has  a  right  to 
protect  the  interest  and  dignity  of  His  government- 
rights  which  we  entirely  ignore.  Earthly  governors, 
who  are  constituted  executors  and  sacred  guardians 
of  the  law,  feel  bound  to  protect  the  interests  of  the 
government,  and  the  majesty  of  the  law  which  is  foun- 
ded in  right  and  truth.  And  their  people  demand  this 
protection.     When  a  murder  is  committed,  the  gov- 
ernment is  regarded  as  criminal  in  failing  to  visit  the 
offence  with  condign  punishment.     Leaving  out  the 
idea  of  the  protection  of  society  in   the  right  of  life 
and  property,  there  is  a  sentiment  in   every  man's 
heart  which  says— the  offender  must  be  punished— 
it  is  right.     And  if  the   murderer  be  untouched, 
the  universal  cry  is,  "the  gallows  has  been  cheated." 
W7hen  one  person  breaks  into  the  house  of  another 
and  robs  him  even  of  a  small  amount,  the  injured 
party  will  pay  ten  times  the  amount  to  arrest  the 
offender.     He  will  have  him  hauled  before  a  court 
of  justice  and  see  that  he  is  sent  to  the  penitentiary. 


94  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

He  completely  damns  the  man,  as  far  as  he  can- 
damns  him  utterly  for  this  world.  The  feelings  of 
humanity  are  not  offended  at  this  treatment,  and  all 
the  people  say— amen.  Yet  when  the  infinite  God, 
the  supreme  law-giver,  who  is  bound  to  protect  His 
throne,  bound  by  His  very  nature  to  uphold  the 
majesty  of  that  law  which  grows  out  of  His  own 
holy  being,  bound  to  protect  the  interests  of  His 
government— when  this  Almighty  Being  enforces 
the  penalty  of  His  law,  we  are  ready  to  cry,  "  injus- 
tice, cruelty!"  If  a  man  commits  a  crime  against 
society,  if  he  remain  impenitent,  he  is  considered 
guilty  to  the  last  day  of  his  life.  Society  punishes 
all  impenitent  offenders  against  its  laws,  more  or 
less  directly,  throughout  their  whole  lifetime.  They 
take  in  just  as  much  of  eternity  as  their  influence 
can  compass— yea,  they  go  beyond  death,  and  plant 
a  stigma  upon  the  name  which  is  never  mentioned 
without  a  frown  for  generations  after  the  offender  is 
gone.  Society  does  this  continually  for  one  offence. 
And  when  God's  government,  which  extends  over 
eternity,  leaves  the  offender,  after  a  thousand  offences, 
to  reap  the  eternal  consequences  of  his  wrong-doing, 
it  is  considered  monstrous. 

Man  ignores  God's  rights  as  Allwise.  God  has 
rights  which  grow  out  of  His  infinite  knowledge  and 
wisdom— rights  which  we  often  totally  ignore — 
rights  we  ourselves  claim.  We  require  of  our  little 
children  who  are  so  inferior  to  us  in  knowledge  and 
wisdom,  to  submit  to  our  decisions  and  teachings. 
AVe  do  not  feel  always  bound  to  explain  to  them  the 


Man's  Attitude.  9S 

reasons  for  our  conduct  towards  them.  Often  they 
are  unable  to  understand  and  appreciate  them.  We 
say  to  them,  It  is  enough  for  you  to  know  that  it  is 
I  who  speak.  We  require  cheerful  acquiescence 
even  when  the  child  does  not  understand  thereasons. 
And  yet  with  our  poor,  little,  finite,  narrow,  short- 
sighted minds,  we  set  ourselves  up  and  challenge 
the  wisdom  of  the  allwise  God,  and  bring  him  to 
trial.  What  is  man  that  he  should  undertake  to 
raise  an  objection  to  anything  which  God  says  !  I 
imagine  the  ephemeral  insect  on  the  leaf  of  the  forest 
tree  exalting  itself  to  comprehend  its  structure,  to 
complain  that  it  might  have  been  made  differently, 
and  better.  Man  setting  himself  up  to  repl}r  against 
God  is  equally  ridiculous.  W'hat  the  creature  lias  to 
do  is  to  learn  what  the  creator  says.  And  while  our 
reason  tells  us  this,  men  are  continually  demanding 
of  the  Almighty  to  explain  the  grounds  of  His  con- 
duct— and  setting  their  wisdom  against  His.  What 
a  strange  and  absurd  attitude  for  a  poor,  weak,  help- 
less, sinful  creature  to  assume  towards  his  Almighty 
Father ! 

God,  who  is  infinite  in  wisdom,  in  knowledge,  in 
goodness  and  love,  has  a  plain  right  to  demand  of 
His  finite,  short-sighted  creatures,  perfect  acquies- 
cence when  He  speaks  to  them.  "Speak,  Lord,  for 
thy  servant  heareth,"  should  be  the  sentiment  of 
every  creature. 

II.  Still  further,  we  observe  the  unreasonableness 
of  man's  attitude  towarks  God's  embassy  of  reconcilia- 
tion. 


§6  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

God's  world  is  in  a  state  of  apostasy  and  rebellion. 
All  have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God. 
"There  is  none  that  doeth  good,  no,  not  one."  The 
world  is  full  of  sin,  misery,  ruin  and  death.  In  God's 
own  dominions  He  is  not  recognized.  He  is  hated 
and  rejected  by  His  own  creatures — and  His  right- 
eous law  places  them  all  under  condemnation.  God, 
in  the  fulness  and  freeness  of  His  boundless  grace, 
condescends  to  lay  aside  the  robes  of  heavenly  roy- 
alty and  the  splendors  of  His  Throne,  and  comes 
down  among  us  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  His 
Son,  on  a  mission  of  reconciliation  and  peace.  He 
comes  to  his  own  empire  and  to  His  own  creatures, 
to  redeem  and  restore  them.  Before  such  an  exhi- 
bition of  infinite  condescension  and  love  there  are 
many  who  assume  the  attitude  of  bare  tolerance. 
They  will  consent  to  listen  to  what  God  Almighty  has  to 
say  through  His  embassadors.  They  will  tolerate  some- 
times an  appeal  from  Him.  When  they  feel  inclined 
the}7  will  give  ear  to  His  message.  The  infinite  God 
coming  down  from  heaven  to  persuade  man  to  be 
saved — to  beg  and  entreat  them  not  to  ruin  them- 
selves, and  offering  a  complete  salvation — and  the 
•guilty  creature  deigning  sometimes  to  listen  to  what 
he  has  to  say  ! 

If  any  human  government  sending  a  simple  em- 
bassy to  another  power,  looking  to  the  adjustment 
of  some  difficulty  which  has  arisen  between  them, 
should  be  treated  in  anything  like  the  manner  we 
treat  God's  embassy  of  mercy,  that  government 
would   declare  war  the  next  hour  and  open  every 


Man's  Attitude,  97 

battery  it  could  muster,  and  the  whold  world  would 
er}r,  amen. 

When  human  governments  send  embassadors  to 
a  foreign  court  to  engage  in  any  treaty  respecting 
difficulties,  they  are  treated  with  the  highest  regard, 

And  still  the  king  of  heaven,  the  immaculate,  per- 
fect son  of  God  comes  into  our  world  clothed  with 
divine  authority,  bringing  the  credentials  of  heaven, 
a  being  whom  all  righteous  spirits — angels,  archan- 
gels and  seraphim — magnify  and  adore,  and  he  is 
not  suffered  to  live  by  his  creatures.  He  is  torn 
away  from  Iiis  gentle  mercies,  from  His  acts  of 
healing,  from  his  tender  sympathies,  and  cruelly 
thrust  out  of  his  own  dominions  by  his  own  crea- 
tures. 

"This  is  the  heir:  come  let  us  kill  him,  and  the 
inheritance  shall  be  ours."  If  the  infinite  God  from 
His  imperial  throne,  had  risen  in  the  greatness  of 
His  majesty,  and  hurled  our  earth  from  its  place 
and  broken  it  into  a  million  fragments — had  He 
ground  it  to  powder  and  scattered  it  out  on  the 
broad  bosom  of  infinite  space,  He  would  have  fol- 
lowed the  course  wThich  human  governments  would 
follow,  if  they  could  exercise  the  power.  He  would 
have  acted  according  to  human  modes  of  procedure. 

Behold  the  horrible  indignation  to  which  Jesus 
Christ  has  continued  to  submit  even  since  His  cru- 
cifixion and  exaltation.  He  has  proven  himself  to 
be  the  light  and  the  life  of  the  world.  And  yet  how 
the  world  has  striven,  for  twenty  centuries,  to  get 
rid  of  him  !     Why  all  this  bitter  opposition  to  Jesus 


98  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

Christ  throughout  the  earth  ?  "  God  hath  a  contro- 
versy with  His  people.  'O  my  people,  what  have  I 
done  unto  thee  :  and  wherein  have  I  wearied  thee? 
Testify  against  me.' ':  Why  these  persistent  attempts  to 
thrust  him  out  of  His  own  possession?  What  has 
Jesus  Christ  done  that  the  world  should  pitch  against 
him  thus  ?  What  charges  can  be  brought  against 
him  ?  He  was  holy,  harmless  and  nndefiled.  He 
was  meek  and  lowly  of  heart,  and  ever  went  about 
doing  good.  Why  is  the  world  trying  to  gather  up 
all  its  talents,  and  ransacking  the  earth  to  discredit 
the  Bible,  when  it  is  the  greatest  friend  it  has  ever- 
seen?  Why  all  these  desperate  endeavors  and  keen 
desires  to  show  that  the  Bible  is  in  conflict  with 
science?  Why  this  delight  in  guessing  that  man  is 
only  an  evolution  from  lower  forms — that  he  is  far 
older  than  revelation  allows?  Why  the  ready  ac- 
quiescence of  men  in  the  wildest  speculation  ?  What 
is  there  in  the  life,  the  character,  the  mission  of  Je- 
sus Christ  to  excite  all  this  opposition?  The  gates 
of  heaven  "were  open  to  receive  him,  and  all  the 
heavenly  hosts  look  on  him  with  delight,  and  shout 
their  halleluiahs  of  praise. 

There  are  many  who  declare  that  they  cast  no  in- 
dignity upon  Jesus  Christ.  They  are  respectful  to- 
wards his  teachings;  but  absorbed  in  their  own  pur- 
suits and  pleasures,  they  give  him  no  thought,  no 
attention.     They  are  entirely  preoccupied. 

Let  us  look  at  the  unreasonableness  and  udekedness  of 
this  attitude. 

The  work  of  redemption  is  the  grandest  and  most 


Man's  Attitude.  99 

glorious  of  all  God's  achievements.  It  challenges 
the  attention  of  the  visible  and  invisible  world.  It 
awakens  the  wonder  of  the  angels.  With  eagerness 
and  joy  they  desire  to  look  into  it.  All  heaven  is 
awake  with  profoundest  interest.  There  never  was 
such  an  expenditure  of  divine  power  as  is  put  forth 
in  this  work  of  redemption.  Christ  is  called  the 
wisdom  of  God,  the  power  of  Ciod — as  if  there  were 
no  other  wisdom  and  power.  But  above  all,  there 
never  wTas  such  an  outgushing  of  compassion  and  love 
— and  this  love  so  costly  !  The  price  paid  fortius  re- 
demption is  beyond  calculation.  Shall  the  mighty 
God  expend  all  this  wisdom,  all  this  power,  all  this 
love  ; — shall  He  exhaust  the  divine  resources  and 
achieve  a  wonder  of  love  which  excites  the  admira- 
tion and  attention  of  all  heaven — a  wonder  that 
gathers  all  the  interests  of  eternity  around  it — a  won- 
der of  love  that  shall  be  the  chief  attraction  of  His 
intelligent  beings  throughout  endless  ages,  and  shall 
the  guilty  creature  before  the  presentation  of  this 
great  salvation  assume  the  attitude  of  inattention 
and  indifference!  Oh!  the  wonderful  patience  of 
God!  How  amazing  that  Jesus  Christ  should  sub- 
mit to  such  indignity  ! 

III.  We  see  the  unreasonableness  of  man's  attitude  to- 
wards  God  in  the  application  and  p>rosecution  oj  His 
scheme  oj  mercy. 

After  we  have  broken  God's  law  and  dishonored 
Him  and  brought  upon  ourselves  His  just  judgment, 
we  have  to  be  begged  and  entreated  to  accept  a  free 
salvation.     We  act  as  though  ive  were  the  offended 


100  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

party,  and  wait  until  we  are  persuaded  and  almost 
dragged  into  heaven.  We  demand  that  God  shall 
speak  to  us  in  an  audible  voice  from  heaven — that 
He  shall  work  some  miracle  before  our  eyes.  We 
demand  that  He  shall  regenerate  our  souls  by  some 
stroke  of  power — while  we  are  perfectly  passive  and 
asleep.  We  require  Him  to  supercede  and  override 
our  free  agency,  and  save  us  in  some  miraculous 
way  from  the  sins  we  are  unwilling  to  forsake. 

How  preposterous  to  take  the  position  that  God 
must  thrust  us  into  heaven  !  Imagine  a  prisoner 
who  has  been  long  confined  in  a  dungeon  with  man- 
acles upon  his  hands  and  feet.  For  years  his  eyes 
have  never  seen  the  blue  canopy  of  heaven.  Only  a 
dim  ray  of  reflected  light  has  stolen  through  his  prison 
bars.  He  has  long  been  a  stranger  to  the  smiles  of 
a  human  face,  and  the  sympathies  of  a  human  heart. 
Some  day  the  prison  doors  are  thrown  wide  open, 
the  fetters  are  loosed,  and  a  pardon  signed  and  sealed, 
is  handed  him.  Would  it  not  be  very  strange  if  he 
should  take  the  position  that  he  must  be  persuaded 
and  entreated  and  forced  out  of  prison?  And  yet 
God  is  expected  to  beg  and  entreat  His  own  chil- 
dren, year  after  year,  not  to  ruin  themselves,  but  to 
accept  His  overtures  of  mercy  and  pardon.  Men 
have  to  be  plied,  again  and  again,  with  all  the  mo- 
tives that  can  be  drawn  from  heaven,  earth  and  hell, 
to  accept  a  free  salvation  from  eternal  ruin.  And 
Jesus  Christ  patiently  stands  at  the  door  of  the  hu- 
man heart  and  pleads  for  admission. 


Man's  Attitude.  101 

aO  lovely  attitude,  he  stands 
With  melting  heart  and  bleeding  hands  ; 
O  matchless  kindness,  and  he  shows 
This  matchless  kindness  to  his  foes.1' 

He  patiently  takes  all  our  insults  and  scorn,  all 
our  contempt  of  his  dignity  and  grace,  of  his  cross 
and  his  blood,  and  pleads  on,  saying—"  Come  unto 
me  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 

He  extended  the  hand  of  love  and  'grace  first  to 
those  who  had  crucified  him.  As  soon  as  he  rose 
from  the  dead,  he  went  first  to  fallen  Peter  who  had 
forsaken  and  denied  him,  and  spread  his  love  around 
him. 

We  are  inclined  to  look  at  this  great  matter  of  sin 
and  redemption— this  great  matter  of  salvation,  al- 
together from  our  side  of  the  question— from  the 
side  of  our  rights.  The  time  will  soon  come  when 
Christ  will  speak  from  his  side.  He  is  appointed 
Judge  of  the  world,  and  all  the  universe  shall  be  as- 
sembled before  him.  As  surely  as  there  is  a  God? 
Christ  will  not  then  come  only  bringing  pardons, 
and  pleading  still  with  the  guilty.  He  will  come 
clothed  with  all  the  rigors  of  judicial  majesty.  He 
will  separate  the  wicked  to  their  fit  award.  "  For 
the  great  day  of  his  wrath  is  come,  and  who  shall 
be  able  to  stand  ?  He  is  like  the  refiner's  fire,  and 
fuller's  soap."  The  guilty  soul  that  has  rejected  and 
insulted  him,  and  turned  away  from  his  bleeding 
love,  will  tremble  and  shrink  and  shiver  before  his 
offended  majesty. 

"  Behold  He  cometh  with   clouds,  and  every  eye 
7 


102  North  Carolina  Sermons4, 

shall  see  Him,  and  they  also  that  pierced  Sim." 
Every  one  of  you  shall  stand  face  to  face  with  that 
Saviour.  You  will  see  the  body  that  was  pierced 
for  you— you  will  look  into  those  eyes  that  wept 
over  you.  What  will  you  say  when  he  shall  appear, 
no  longer  as  the  pleading  Saviour,  but  as  the  Al- 
mighty Judge.  He  will  come  with  his  winnowing 
fan  in  his  hand,  he  will  thoroughly  purge  his  floor 
— the  chaff  he  will  burn  with  unquenchable  fire. 
The  goodness  and  forbearance  of  God  have  been 
tried  all  in  vain— mow  behold  His  severity  !  Be-- 
bold  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb  f  Depart  ye  cursed  into 
everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  an-5 
gels.     And  all  the  universe  shall  say,  amen  I 


THE  HUMAN  BODY. 

BJ-  Rev..  J..  Jj  Resn, 
Df  the  North  Carolina  Conference.' 


Neglecting  of  the  t>ody,-=Col.  ii:  23. 

Man  is  "fearfully  and  wonderfully  made/'  a  com-* 
plex  organism,  consisting  of  body  and  soul,  visible 
and  invisible,  material  and  spiritual,  a  child  of  na- 
ture and  of  God,  constituting  in  himself,  on  the  one 
hand,  a  microcosm — image  of  the  world — ,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  a  microtheos — image  of  God. 


The  Human  Body.  103 

These  elements  of  manhood  were  divinely  intend- 
ed to  exist  together  in  harmonious  relations  in  this 
world,  that  by  their  co-ordination  man  might  be 
able  to  fulfil  his  grand  mission  as  announced  when 
he  was  created  in  Adam,  and  also  to  attain  his  high 
•destiny  as  announced  in  his  redemption  through 
Christ. 

This  complete  view  of  man  as  he  is  has  never  been 
popular  in  any  system  of  philosophy  or  religion,  in 
ancient  or  modern  times.  Theistic  and  atheistic  spec- 
ulations have  both  erred  by  magnifying  one  element 
of  manhood  at  the  expense  of  the  other,  hence  the 
materialistic  deification  of  nature  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  spiritualistic  contempt  of  it  on  the  other. 
The  one  party  has  labored  for  ages  to  divorce  spirit 
from  matter,  the  other  to  divorce  matter  from  spirit. 
Both  have  failed,  and  for  the  simple  reason  that 
what  God  hath  joined  together  no  man  can  put 
■asunder.  He  has  wedded  together  the  visible  form 
and  the  invisible  spirit  in  the  nature  of  man,  and 
both  are  necessary  for  the  performance  of  human 
functions,  and  the  attainment  of  human  destiny: 
and  from  the  day  when  the  apostle  warned  the  Co- 
lossians  against  u  neglecting  of  the  body  "  to  the 
present  time  the  warning  has  been  necessary.  As 
the  result  of  ancient  Gnosticism,  which  held  that  all 
matter  is  essentially  evil,  out  of  which  developed  the 
asceticism,  monasticism,  and  mystic  fanaticism  of 
the  post-apostolic  church,  the  necessity  and  impor- 
tance of  the  human  body  was  lost  sight  of,  and,  if 
we  are  not  mistaken,  it  is  still  greatly  underestima- 


104  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

ted  in  christian  thought.  The  sentiment  is  but  toa 
common  that  the  body  is  a  worthless  clog  retarding 
the  soul  in  its  upward  flight,  a  clumsy  environment 
from  which  escape  should  be  regarded  as  the  true 
enfranchisement  of  the  immortal  mind.  Such  a  no- 
tion is  supported  by  neither  Scripture  nor  reason. 
To  redeem  the  human  body  from  this  humiliating 
view  is  the  object  of  this  discourse. 

The  following  reflections,  therefore,  on  the  sub- 
jective importance  of  the  body,  and  its  relations  to 
the  objective  universe,  will  not,  I  trust,  be  deemed 
out  of  place  in  this  connection.  It  is  of  too  great 
importance  to  be  ignored  in  any  rational  and  Scrip- 
tural attempt  to  describe  man  as  he  is,  and  as  he  is 
to  be  hereafter.  This  is  seen  in  the  following  par- 
ticulars : 

1.  The  body  occupies  an  important  place  in  man's  crea- 
tion. I  will  not  sa}'  that  man  could  not  exist  until 
a  body  was  created  for  him,  but  he  certainly  did  not 
exist  until  that  was  done.  The  creation  of  the  body 
was  the  first  act  performed,  and  the  first  part  men- 
tioned in  the  Mosaic  description  of  man's  creation, 
and,  beyond  question,  occupies  a  prominent  place 
in  the  only  authoritative  account  on  record  of  man's 
origin.  The  body  is  the  substructure  of  which  the 
rational  soul  is  the  superstructure,  and  is  as  neces- 
sary and  important  in  its  place  as  the  base  is  to  the 
stately  and  beautiful  column,  or  as  the  solid  orb  is 
to  the  effulgence  of  the  sun. 

We  may  say  without  fear  of  contradiction  that 
God  never  did  anything  without  sufficient  reason. 


The  Human  Body.  105 

for  it,  and  that  man  would  never  have  had  a  body 
at  all  had  it  not  been  a  matter  of  importance  both 
for  his  own  good,  and  for  the  glory  of  his  creator ; 
therefore  the  very  fact  that  he  has  a  body,  formed 
by  the  power  of  God,  is  proof  of  its  great  impor- 
tance. 

2.   The  body  occupies  an    important  place  in  man's 
work     Here  its  importance  appears  in  still  stronger 
light.     It  is  absolutely  necessary  to  man  in  order  to 
accomplish  his  God-given  mission  in  that  sphere  of 
life  in  which  he  was  first  placed.     He  was  originally 
destined  to  dwell  in  this  world  for  a  time,  and  for  a 
purpose.     That  purpose  is  declared  in  the  divine 
announcement,  "  Let  us  make  man     *     *     *     and 
let  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and 
over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle,  and 
over  all  the  earth,      *      *      *      So  God   created  man, 
*     *     *     And  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said  unto 
them,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the 
earth,  and  subdue  it,  and  have  dominion,"  etc.  That 
was  his  mission  here,  declared  to  him  before  his  fall, 
and  hence  he  was  placed  in  the  material  "  garden 
to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it."     Man  is  divinely  appoint- 
ed as  the  absolute  lord   of  this  earth—may  we  not 
say  of  all  material  things  ?     The  objects  over  which 
he  is  appointed  to  rule  are  specified   in  Genesis  as 
"  every  living  thing,"  and,  also,  "  over  all  the  earth." 
In  the  light  of  human  history  and  modern  science 
we  can  apprehend,  and  to  some  extent  comprehend, 
what  is  the  stupendous  meaning  of  this  clause,  "over 
all  the  earth."  It  seemsboth  to  refer  to  its  immense  ma- 


106  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

terial  mass,  and  its  invisible  laws  and  forces.     It  has 
long  been  compelled  to  yield  to  man's  wants  much 
of  its  precious  treasure— its  vegetable,  animal  and 
mineral  wealth.     Now,  man,  guided  by  the  genius 
of  modern  science,  is  compelling  it  to  tell  the  story 
of  its  birth   and    the  long- hidden    mystery   of  its 
growth.    He  is  translating  and  transferring  the  rock- 
written  language  of  primeval  earth  to  his  own  im- 
mortal vocabulary,  to  be  preserved  in  the  archives 
of  the  universe  when  the  original  scroll  of  rock  shall 
have  been  "melted  with  fervent  heat,"     He  compels 
the  earth  to  surrender  her  long-imprisoned  pre-his- 
toric  fauna  and  flora  to  adorn   his  museums,  and 
store  his  mind  with  truth.     He  has  discovered  and 
formulated  the  laws  that  control  her  vast  and  com- 
plicated machinery   from  the  nebulous  formation  of 
matter  and  of  protoplasmic  structure  of  organic  be- 
ing, to  the  attraction  of  gravitation  which  holds  the 
universe  in  leash.     He  is  evoking  the  proud  spirits 
of  her  invisible  forces,  and  they  are  coming  forth  to 
do  his  bidding.      Electricity  carries  his  messages 
around  the  globe  with  a  speed  that  shames  the  fleet- 
footed  coursers  of  the  dawn.     Steam  contributes  its 
titanic  strength  to  bear  his  burdens,  and  supplement 
the  cunning  skill  of  his  fingers.     The  atmosphere  is. 
opening  up  to  him  a  pathway  through  her  trackless 
domain.  Light  pencils  for  his  esthetic  taste  the  form 
of  beauty  on  the  glowing  canvass.  Sound  consents  to 
keep  his  thoughts  and  tones  in  store  and  repeat  them 
to  future  generations.     When  we  consider  what  man 
has  achieved  in  the  last  century  it  is  likely  tkat  at 


The  Human  Body.  107 

no  distant  day  the  law  of  gravity  itself  will  obey  his 
will  on  a  scale  which  to  us  would  now  be  miracu- 
lous. 

In  view  of  the  divine  announcement  of  man's  des- 
tiny, in  view  of  what  he  has  already  accomplished, 
and  the  rapid  advances  he  is  now  making  in  the 
many  departments  of  thought  and  activity,  I  doubt 
not  that  the  race  is  destined  to  remain  on  this  earth 
until  the  divine  command  is  fulfilled  to  "replenish 
the  earth,  and  subdue  it"  until  it  reveals  to  him  all 
history  of  its  past  existence,  until  its  every  atom 
contributes  to  his  knowledge  and  welfare,  and  until 
its  every  law  and  influence  is  subject  to  his  will. 
In  the  performance  of  these  wondrous  achievements 
the  body  is  an  absolute  necessity.  I  believe  that  ail 
knowledge  and  force  are  vested  in  spirit,  but  I  also 
believe  that  neither  can  reach  its  highest  achieve- 
ment and  manifestation  without  the  agency  of  mat- 
ter  without  the  material  means  to  control,  combine 

and  manipulate  material  substance  into  outward  and 
visible  expressions  of  thought  and  power.  And 
herein  is  revealed  the  superiority  of  men  over  an- 
gels. Man  is  endowed  with  creative  genius  and  skill; 
and  through  the  agency  of  his  material  form  he  is 
able  to  demonstrate  his  wonderful  endowments,  and 
to  impress  his  subjective  power  upon  the  objective 
world.  Angels,  whose  mode  of  existence  has  no  ma- 
terial basis,  are  incapable  it  seems  of  manipulating 
material  substances.  Are  they  learned  in  art  and 
science?  Have  they  ever  invented  anything?  Are 
they  endowed   with  genius  and  skill  ?      Have  they 


108  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

ever,  during  their  long  existence,  erected  to  them- 
selves a  single  monument  of  art?  If  so,  where  is 
the  proof?  It  is  not  in  the  Bible  ;  it  is  not  in  na- 
ture ;  it  is  not  in  any  part  of  the  universe  accessible 
to  us.  So  far  as  facts  concerning  them  are  revealed, 
in  the  exercise  of  genius  and  skill,  they  have  raised 
not  a  stone,  they  have  carved  not  a  line  to  speak  of 
their  presence  in  the  universe.  If  they  were  blotted 
out  of  existence  to-day  we  have  no  evidence  that 
they  would  leave  a  footprint  on  the  sands  of  time. 
Doubtless  they  fill  an  important  place,  and  have  an 
important  place  in  the  realm  of  sentient  existence, 
but  it  does  not  seem  to  lie  in  the  God-like  endow- 
ments of  creative  genius  and  skill,  manifesting  them- 
selves in  art  and  science,  the  dreams  of  poets  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding. 

Here,  then,  is  a  vast  difference  between  men  and 
angels,  and  a  vast  advantage  on  the  side  of  man. 
The  being  who  is  endowed  with  genius  and  skill, 
and  is  prepared  to  exercise  them,  is,  above  all  others, 
most  like  God.  Man  is  gifted  with  these,  and 
for  their  exercise  the  bod}^  is  necessary.  Such  a 
thing  as  practical  skill  in  man  could  not  be  without 
the  body,  nay  without  even  the  ten  fingers.  If  all 
men  had  been  made  just  as  they  are,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  fingers,  their  earthly  mission  would  have 
been  a  total  failure.  The  fingers  areas  necessary  in 
the  work  of  subduing  and  dominating  the  earth  as 
are  the  brain  and  spirit  of  man.  Had  they  been 
left  off  he  would  have  been  deprived  of  the  ability 
to  execute  his  will  in  the  development  of  his  higher 


The  Human  Body.  109 

powers.  His  genius  might  inspire,  his  reason  might 
devise,  his  will  might  dictate,  but  without  his  fingers 
there  could  be  no  execution ;  and  without  the  body 
there  could  be  no  outer  expression  of  the  inner  work- 
ing of  the  soul.  It  is  the  medium  through  which 
he  acts  upon  the  objective  universe.  By  its  help  he 
has  extended  his  observations,  his  knowledge,  and 
his  operations  to  an  extent  that  borders  on  the  mi- 
raculous. 

By  its  muscular  power,  aided  by  the  cunning  fin- 
gers, the  telegraph  line  is  laid  and  electricity  tells  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth  the  workings  of  the  mind  ; 
steam  is  harnessed  and  driven  where  the  will  dic- 
tates ;  ships  are  built  and  the  ocean  is  crossed  ;  the 
balloon  is  constructed  and  man  ascends  to  the  region 
of  the  clouds;  submarine  armor  is  made  and  the 
depths  of  the  ocean  are  searched  for  its  hidden 
treasures;  the  telescope  is  raised  and  the  material 
eye  reveals  to  the  mind  the  mysteries  of  the  starry 
heaven ;  and  books  are  written  that  immortalize 
the  revelations  of  God  and  the  achievements  of  man. 

Without  the  aid  of  the  body  none  of  these  things 
could  have  been  done.  In  all  this,  and  infinitely 
more,  it  is  essentially  necessary.  Were  the  human 
race  suddenly  translated  from  the  earth  it  would 
leave  its  monuments  everywhere.  In  the  pyramid 
and  pillar  pointing  to  heaven,  in  the  mining  shaft 
that  taps  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  in  the  tunnel  that 
burrows  through  the  mountain,  and  in  many  a  work 
of  art  the  earth  would  be  able  to  tell  through  all 
her  future  course  the  story  of  man's  former  residence 


110  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

here.  This  he  has  clone,  yet,  doubtless,  it  is  but  the 
beginning  of  inconceivable  achievements  to  be  ac- 
complished before  his  earthly  mission  is  over.  And 
the  body  is  the  executive  agent  performing  it  all. 
If  man,  impelled  onward  by  reason,  genius  and 
skill,  does  all  this  in  the  temporary  encampment  of 
this  life,  what  will  he  not  do  when  he  reaches  his 
eternal  home?  We  can  only  look  up  and  wonder  ! 
3.  The  body  occupies  an  important  place  in  man's  ulti- 
mate destiny.  In  this  the  question  of  its  eternal  im- 
portance is  settled.  From  the  Bible  we  learn  that 
the  spirit  cannot  enter  upon  its  final  career  without 
the  body  ;  hence  the  resurrection.  The  spirit  can- 
not be  judged  without  the  body  ;  hence  the  placing 
of  the  judgment  after  the  resurrection.  And  the 
spirit  is  not  glorified  without  the  body.  The  apoca- 
lyptic visions  reveal  the  glorified  saints  in  heaven 
in  bodily  form,  clothed  in  white  robes,  with  crowns 
on  their  heads,  and  with  palms  and  harps  in  their 
hands,  as  they  sing  the  new  song  of  their  ultimate 
salvation.  The  spirit  cannot  realize  its  high  destiny 
and  fulfil  its  grand  heavenly  mission  until  "new 
heavens  and  a  new  earth"  are  prepared  for  the  body. 
So  important  is  it  that  the  spiritual  heaven  itself, 
hitherto  inhabited  by  immaterial  beings,  must  take 
on  a  visible,  material  expression  to  accommodate  it- 
self to  the  wants  of  embodied  men.  On  the  night 
before  His  crucifixion  the  Saviour  said,  "  In  my  Fa- 
ther's house  are  many  mansions,  *  *  *  I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  you ;  and  if  I  go  and  prepare  a 
place  for  you   I  will    come  again   and   receive  you 


The  Human  Body,  111 

unto  myself,  that  where  I  am  [in  the  body]  there  ye 
may  be  also."  Some  sixty  years  after  this  He  grant- 
ed to  St.  John  a  prophetic  revelation  of  "the  New 
Jerusalem  coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven, 
prepared  as  a  bride  adorned  for  her  husband  "  with 
"all  manner  of  precious  stones  "  forher  foundations, 
and  her  walls  "clear  as  crystal,"  filled  with  the  light 
of  God  and  the  Lamb.  And  this  is  the  future  home 
of  the  embodied  saints.  Thus  we  see  that  heaven 
itself  must  be  re-edified  to  become  a  suitable  abode 
for  the  residence  of  redeemed  and  embodied  men, 
allied  as  they  are,  and  must  forever  be,  to  the  outer, 
visible  universe. 

The  Scriptures  teach  us  that  through  universal 
combustion  all  nature  will  be  clarified  and  transfig- 
ured, filled  with  light,  and  made  fit  material  for  the 
exercise  of  the  fully  developed  powers  of  glorified 
man.  Then,  as  the  learned  Schoeberlein  has  well 
said,  what  holds  good  of  nature  in  general,  holds 
pre-eminently  so  of  the  resurrection  body.  The 
future  body  will  be  spiritualized  because  of  the  in- 
dwelling supremacy  of  the  life-giving  Spirit  of  God. 
Such  a  body  will  be  essentially  a  body  of  light,  a 
heavenly  body. 

Being  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spiritual  ele- 
ment it  will  be  in  harmony  with  itself  and  with  God, 
hence  it  will  be  immortal.  It  is  onty  in  this  its  true 
spirituality  that  the  body  reaches  its  real  destina- 
tion. It  will  be  a  body  of  light,  and  hence  it  will 
manifest  to  the  universe  the  very  finest  shades  of 
thought  and  feeling  which  exist  in  the  soul. 


112  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

But  the  glorified  bodies  will  not  be  monotonous 
duplicates  of  each  other.  As  there  is  endless  variety 
of  individuality  in  character,  so  this  variety  in  its 
most  delicate  shades  will  shine  forth  from  the  heav- 
enly bodies.  As  one  star  differs  from  another  star 
in  glory — -as  there  is  one  glory  of  the  sun,  and  an- 
other of  the  moon — so  with  the  galaxy  of  resurrec- 
tion bodies. 

Here  human  nature  will  have  attained  to  com- 
plete glory.  With  the  clarification  of  the  body  the 
personality  rises  to  complete  inner  unity.  Whereas 
in  this  life  we  consist  of  the  three  elements — body, 
soul  and  spirit — which  may  even  be  separated  from 
each  other,  in  the  heavenly  life  the  body  and  soul 
will  be  so  pervaded  with  spirit  that  the  entire  hu- 
man being  will  present  but  one  unitary  spiritual 
life.  As  Christ,  the  head  of  the  kingdom,  is  the 
Spirit  by  pre  eminence,  so  we,  his  members,  will 
likewise  be  spirit — spirit  in  the  highest,  and,  also, 
most  concrete  sense,  as  a  realistic  unity  of  personal 
and  natural  life  through  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  And  as  the  body  will  be  a  mirror  of,  so  will 
it  be  a  suitable  home  for  the  soul.  In  the  earthy 
body  instead  of  beholding  heavenly  things  face  to 
face,  we  are  shut  up  to  the  path  of  faith.  But  then 
we  "  shall  see  face  to  face  "  "  and  know  even  as  we 
ourselves  also  are  known." 

As  the  body  will  stand  in  full  communion  with 
the  kingdoms  of  natural  and  spiritual  light,  it  will 
be  superior  to  the  laws  of  gravitation  and  passivity, 
and  will  move  at  will  through  the  realms  of  space. 


The  Human  Body.  113 

Wherever  the  soul  may  will  to  be  there  it  will  be 
able  to  be.  Hence,  the  body  will  not  be  a  prison, 
but  a  free  home  for  the  soul. 

Also  it  will  serve  the  soul  as  a  perfect  organ  for 
intercourse  with  the  outer  world.  This  intercourse 
will  be  as  essential  in  the  future  as  in  the  present, 
It  will  onty  then  exist  in  perfection  for  nature  will 
then  stand  in  a  more  obedient  relation  to  the  soul. 
Man  will  enjoy  nature  through  all  his  senses.  He 
will  "  eat  of  the  tree  of  life,"  and  "  drink  of  the  fruit 
of  the  vine/' 

The  Paradise  that  existed  before  sin  will  be  re- 
stored in  thousand  fold  splendor  after  redemption. 
Ail  natural  features  will  be  retained,  though  glori- 
fied, and  we  will  be  able  to  recognize  friends  at  sight 
as  we  do  here.  But  we  may  be  sure  that  man's  re- 
lation to  nature  will  be  not  merely  receptive,  but, 
also,  active.  As  it  is  man's  calling  even  here  to 
shape  nature  to  perfection,  much  more  will  it  be 
so  hereafter.  The  whole  realm  of  transfigured  ma- 
teriality will  be  one  vast  platform  for  the  plastic  in- 
fluence of  glorified  men.  Hence,  science,  and  art, 
and  the  mechanism  of  life,  will  reach  the  ideal  per- 
fection toward  which  they  here  grope  in  vain. 

For  his  active  relation  to  nature,  man  will  have 
in  his  glorified  powers,  the  suitable  means.  As  his 
heart  will  beat  with  the  heart  of  God,  his  spirit  will 
find  no  hindrance  to  its  outgoings.  l  We  are  sown 
in  weakness,  but  ive  rise  in  power.'  We  shall  subsist 
in  ever  full  vigor  and  enthusiasm.  Nor  will  the 
body  be  more  serviceable  for  communion  with  outer 


114  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

nature  than  with  the  world  of  personalities.  It  is 
■only  through  the  body  that  love  reveals  its  inner 
life  and  imparts  its  gifts.  If  one  personal  spirit 
could  be  conscious  of  the  presence  of  another  with- 
out the  medium  of  bodily  organs  of  some  sort  both 
the  fact  and  the  manner  of  it  are  alike  inconceiva- 
ble to  us. 

Thus  we  reach  the  goal  of  our  search.  Our  bodies 
are  not  mere  caducous  husks,  to  be  thrown  off  when 
the  soul  is  ripe;  but  nature  and  the  kingdom  of 
God,  the  rational  soul  and  the  human  body  belong 
normally  and  essentially  together.  When  the  one 
is  transfigured  the  other  is  transfigured.  And  when, 
at  the  goal  of  moral  development,  they  are  risen  to 
integral  unity,  then  they  persist,  through  eternit}^ 
as  intimately  united  as  form  and  substance,  light 
and  color. 

Finally,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  now  exists  in  a  hu- 
man body,  and  will  dwell  in  it  with  his  saints  for- 
ever. His  body  is  indescribably  luminous  as  it  was 
seen,  with  Moses  and  Elias,  on  the  mount  of  trans- 
figuration, and,  also,  by  John  as  He  stood  in  the 
midst  of  the  seven  golden  candlesticks.  And  the 
glorious  wonder  is  the  bodies  of  His  saints  will  be 
like  His!  He  "  shall  change  our  vile  body,  that  it 
may  be  fashioned  like  unto  His  glorious  body,  ac- 
cording to  the  working  whereby  he  is  able  even  to 
subdue  all  things  unto  himself."  "Howbeit  that  was 
not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is  natu- 
ral;  and  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual.  The 
first  man  is  of  the  earth.,  earthy  ■;  the  second  man  is 


The  Human  Body.  115 

the  Lord  from  heaven.  As  is  the  earthy,  such  are 
they  also  that  are  earthy,  and  as  is  the  heavenly  such 
are  they  also  that  are  heavenly.  And  aswehavehorue 
the  image  of  the  earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  im- 
age of  the  heavenly.''  "Then  shall  the  righteous 
shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom  of  their  father; 
who  hath  ears  to  hear  let  him  hear,"  We  learn 
from  this : 

1.  That  the  human  body  is  not  evil  in  itself,  but 
a  necessary  factor  in  the  constitution,  mission,  and 
destiny  of  redeemed  and  glorified  manhood. 

2.  That  man  was  never  intended  to  live  in  eter- 
nal, listless  indolence,  to  enjoy,  without  effort  or 
thought,  the  spontaneous  bounties  of  nature. 

3.  That,  endowed  with  Godlike  genius  and  skill, 
and  the  power  to  execute,  it  is  of  the  very  essence  of 
the  idea  of  man  that  to  him  is  given  the  power  and 
assigned  the  duty,  by  divine  help,  of  solving  the 
problem  of  his  own  perfected  being,  and  the  words 
of  Christ  should  ever  be  his  motto  •  "  My  Father 
■worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work  J' 

4.  That,  if  true  to  themselves  and  their  God,  men 
may  rise  to  dominion  over  all  created  things,  and 
reign  with  Christ  "far  above  all  principality,  and 
power,  and  might,  and  dominion,  and  every  name 
that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world,  but  also  in 
that  which  is  to  come,  inasmuch  as  they  constitute 
His  "  church,  which  is  His  body,  the  fullness  of  him 

THAT  FILLETH  ALL  IN  ALL." 

"Thanks  be  unto  God  for  his  unspeakable  gift !" 


116  North  Carolina  Sermons. 


THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

By  Rev.  George  W.  Neat.,. 
Of  the  North  Carolina  Local  Ministers'  Conference. 


The  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit,  that  we  are  the 
children  of  God.— Rom.  viii:  10. 


I.  God  has  given  to  man  in  the  Physical  world  a  witness  to  guide 
him  to  knowledge. 

II.  God  has  also  given  to  man  a  witness  in  the  Spiritual  world  to 
guide  him  tosalvation. 

III.  The  unspeakable  reward  of  accepting  the  Witness. 

I.   God  has  given  to  man  in  the  Physical  world  a  witness 
to  guide  him  to  knowledge. 

When  Jehovah  by  his  creative  fiat  spoke  the  uni- 
verse into  existence,  He  endowed  matter  with  cer- 
tain laws  which  should  not  only  portray  infinite 
wisdom,  but  direct  man,  monarch  of  the  new-born 
earth,  in  fixing  the  position  and  relations  of  his  own 
planet  amid  other  worlds.  The  Almighty  has  belt- 
ed His  works  with  significant  lines,  and  clothed 
them  with  burning  truths  that  struggle  to  come 
forth  into  noon-day  light,  and  stand  as  witnesses  for 
Him.  But  he  has  decreed  that  the  intellect  He  gave 
man,  must  laboriously  and  reverently  thread  those 
trembling  lines,  that  penetrate  the  deep  labyrinths 
of  his  majesty,  to  realize  the  presence  of  that  Wit- 
ness who  speaks  for  nature,  and  for  Nature's  God. 
The  omnipotent  Father  sweeps  countless  stars  and 


Witness  op  the  Spirit,  117 

comets  in  the  trackless  regions  of  space,  but  in  the 
hands  of  man,  He  pats  a  measure  to  touch  them  in 
their  most  eccentric  flight,  and  stop  them  there  to 
see.  He  plants  His  witnesses  from  centre  to  circum- 
ference of  His  vast  domain  ;  bids  man  strive,  search, 
study,  and  adore  the  great  tests  which  guide  him  in 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  When  the  Psalmist 
proclaims  that  the  u  heavens  declare  the  glory  of 
Ood,  and  the  firmament  shovveth  His  handywork," 
lie  announces  a  great  truth  for  every  man,  against 
which  no  mortal  eye  must  be  closed.  Every  mind, 
every  heart,  must  humbly  hear  the  sublime  state- 
ment, and  faithfully  work  to  evoke  the  voice  of  the 
witness  that  stands  ready  to  render  the  truthful  ev- 
idence. The  mathematician  may  bring  forth  his 
angles  and  curves,  and  lay  them  on  the  broad  face 
of  the  creation  to  elicit  the  deep-seated  truth,  as  wit- 
ness of  the  divine  glory  declared  in  the  word  of  God. 
This  he  must  do,  or  fail  to  see  the  great  panorama 
before  him.  The  untutored  savage,  as  he  trips  in 
the  forest  by  night  or  day  must  turn  his  unculti- 
vated mind  to  the  Great  Spirit,  and  wonder  beneath 
the  transcendent  power  that  hung  above  him  the 
arching  sky.  Every  heart,  every  clime,  every  na- 
tion, must  seek,  must  hear,  the  witness,  or  remain  in 
darkness.  Nowhere  is  the  voice  of  the  eternal  Fa- 
ther silent.  In  the  stupendous  world,  and  in  the 
smallest  atom,  the  witness  speaks.  In  all  the  rela- 
tions and  vocations  of  life,  our  merciful  Parent  has, 
in  infinite  wisdom  and  goodness,  provided  a  test  to 
be  offered  as  a  guide  which  man  must  approve  and 


118  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

be  benefited,  or  refuse,  and  suffer  tbe  consequences. 
Divine  munificence  in  tbe  economy  of  nature  has  so 
ordered  the  seasons  and  physical  forces,  that  the 
husbandman  can  and  must  soon  learn,  that  there  are 
before  him  conditions  of  great  value  for  acceptance 
or  rejection.  He  must  study  wisely  the  sure  test 
Which  offers  ample  testimony.  He  must  comply 
with  the  conditions  which  nature  in  her  imperative 
mood  strictly  enjoins ;  and  when  the  harvest  is 
white  and  abundant,  he  will  learn  that  obedience  to 
the  witness  has  purchased  an  experience  that  is  re- 
liable, profitable,  and  competent  to  direct  him  amid 
the  chilling  blasts  and  stern  uncertainties  that  envi- 
ron his  way.  He  is  free  to  use  or  disregard  the  fixed 
standard  ;  but  the  consequences  of  his  choice  must 
accordingly  fall  upon  him. 

The  chemist  has  ascertained  in  obedience  to  the 
great  law  of  nature  that  certain  elements,  entirely 
different,  when  mixed,  combine  indefinite  and  un- 
alterable proportions,  and  afford  to  the  world,  by 
divine  arrangement,  a  blessing  in  the  name  of  med- 
icine. Experience  teaches  him  to  look  as  steadfastly 
to  these  fixed  principles  of  his  science  to  guide  him, 
as  the  ocean  bound  mariner  watches  the  magnetic 
needle  that  is  true  to  the  pole.  The  practical  phy- 
sician relies  upon  the  medicine  which  the  chemist 
has  compounded  by  experience,  and  finds  it  by  ex- 
periment wisely  adapted  to  restore  the  exhausted 
functions  of  the  patient,  who  is  no  less  faithful  in 
testing  the  prescribed  remedy.  But  the  patient  has 
power  to  refuse  the  remedy  and  die.      The  doctor 


Witness  of  the  Spirit.  119 

can  discard  the  skill  of  the  chemist,  and  lose  his 
profession  and  its  benefits  to  mankind.  The  chem- 
ist in  turn,  can  refuse  to  believe  the  teachings  of  his 
own  experimental  science,  and  thus  reject  its  trans- 
ports, honors,  and  advantages  which  a  gracious  Crea- 
tor has  freely  offered.  But  in  all  this,  the  benefit  is 
lost,  because  the  faithful  witness  has  been  unheeded, 
though  still  true  with  earnest  pleadings  to  give  the 
needed  guidance. 

11.  God  has  also  given  to  man  a  witness  in  the  Spiritual 
world  to  guide  him  to  Salvation. 

1.  The  solemn  import  of  the  second  proposition 
asks  every  soul  this  question  :  If  God  has  stamped 
the  impress  of  His  beneficence  on  the  material  crea- 
tion to  direct  His  creatures,  will  He  throw  wonder- 
ful man  guideless  and  comfortless  on  the  uncertain 
ocean  of  a  wonderful  life  for  a  wonderful  end  ?  Will 
divine  goodness  forsake  the  immortal  spirit  of  an 
intelligent  being,  when  the  greatest  Witness  and 
Heaven's  resources  are  needed  in  the  fearful  conflict ; 
when  an  undying  soul  is  trembling  in  the  balance, 
will  Jehovah  withdraw  Himself  and  forget  the  no- 
blest work  beneath  the  sun  ? 

2.  The  witness  awakens.  The  inspired  language 
of  the  text  declares  the  awful  character  of  the  Wit- 
ness. Who  "  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit  that 
we  are  the  children  of  God."  He  comes  with  heav- 
en's authority  and  high  commission  to  stand  at 
every  corner  of  man's  uncertain  way  ;  to  wake  the 
sleeper,  unconscious  of   his  doom,    and  give   him 


120  North  Carolina  Sermons". 

power  to  see  celestial  light.  With  the  searching 
mandate  of  the  divine  Master,  He  proclaims  to  every  fi 
mortal  heart,  "  Behold,.  I  stand  at  the  door  and 
knock :  if  any  man  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in  to* 
him,  and  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  me."  He  stands, 
has  been  standing,  and  continues  to  stand,  as  im- 
plied in  the  Greek  text,  at  the  door  of  every  soul. 
Though  armed  with  the  omnipotent  sceptre  of  eter- 
nal majesty,  He  pauses  at  the  door  of  human  respon- 
sibility, and  knocks  for  admittance.  He  calls  aloud 
and  persistently  to  the  immortal  spirit  within  to 
open,  but  he  dares  not  to  force  the  door,  and  set  His 
holy  foot  over  the  sacred  threshold,  till  the  awakened 
soul  obeys  the  friendly  voice,  and  gives  an  entrance. 
The  inmate  of  the  implied  mansion  of  the  human 
heart  is  represented  in  the  Scripture  as  having  an 
Important  part  to  act  in  the  great  transaction  be- 
tween the  Holy  Witness  and  himself.  The  door  is 
closed,  and  the  iron  bar  of  sin  is  across  it.  The  all- 
penetrating  voice  of  the  Great  Spirit  reaches  the  ear 
of  the  sleeper  within  who  is  "  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sin,"  and  who  alone  must  open,  if  ever  the  faithful 
Witness  enter  to  spread  the  joyous  supper  of  His 
high  mission.  The  keeper  of  the  house  can  refuse 
to  open  the  door,  but  the  fearful  consequences  of  the 
broken  obligation  must  rest  upon  him. 

3.  The  Witness  convinces  of  sin  and  bears  testi- 
mony to  the  same. 

Who  but  the  omniscient  Spirit  can  penetrate  the 
dark  recesses  of  the  heart  "  that  is  deceitful  above 
all  things  and  desperately  wicked"  and  reprove  "the 


Witness  of  the  Spirit.  121 

world  of  sin"  as  Jesus  said  ?      Who  but  this  divine 
Messenger  can  break  and  lift  the  rock-like  covering 
that  imbeds  the  turpitude  of  man's  wicked  heart, 
and  send  heaven's  reproving   and  vitalizing  light 
into  that  dismal  domain  ?     The  answer  comes  from 
Jesus ;  "  I  will  send  the  Comforter,  and  He  will  re- 
prove the  world  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judg- 
ment."    This  Holy  Witness  with  the  dread  agonies 
I  of  the  cross  looks  upon   the  sinner's  fallen  nature, 
land  pours  the  benedictions  of  infinite  mercy  upon 
I  its  deadened  energies  in  a  way  that  he  never  forgets, 
when  the  chain  of  his  bondage  is  broken,  and  the 
light  of  redemption  in  Christ  beams  upon  his  soul. 
But  with  this  high  privilege,  let  the  enthralled  heart 
of  the  impenitent  tremble,  because  the  same  august 
authority  affirms  with  divine  emphasis  :  "My  Spirit 
;  shall  not  always  strive  with  man  :  Quench  not  the 
Spirit." 

4.  The  Witness  regenerates,  and  bears  testimony 
to  the  same. 

We  have  earthly  friends  that  stand  by  us  in  the 
j  darkest  hour  of  adversity ;  peril  their  safety  to  shield 
our  defenceless  heads  and,  when  all  is  gone,  extend, 
as  the  last  token  of  regard,  the  cordial  grasp  of  a 
friendly  hand.  They  can  pour  out  their  sympathies 
and  tears  in  the  trying  hour  of  expiring  nature. 
But  neither  they,  nor  angel,  nor  archangel,  can  ex- 
tract the  scorpion  sting  of  sin,  and  its  distracting 
guilt  from  the  human  heart,  and  impart  ease  to  an 
aching  spirit.  God  alone  can  furnish  the  omniscient 
agent  who  can  explore  the  corrupt  caverns  of  man's 


122  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

secret  bosoin,  and  search  out  the  lurking  pride,  mal- 
ice, ill-will,  presumption,  vanity,  ingratitude,  nay, 
the  legion  of  licentious  passions  that  are  in  league 
with  the  fires  of  the  nether  pit.  Who  but  the  Holy 
Ghost,  faithful  Witness,  can  drive  a  softening  ray  of 
divine  light  into  this  granite-like  dungeon  of  vipers 
in  man's  heart ;  burn  out  the  deadly  poison  which 
is  infused  into  every  vital  fibre  of  a  wicked  nature; 
exhume  the  loathsome  body  of  sin,  and  seat  the 
demoniac  in  his  right  mind  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  upon 
an  elevated  plane  of  purity  and  holiness?  No  won- 
der, that  the  apostle,  seeing  his  ruined  estate,  ex- 
claims, "Oh  wretched  man  that  I  am !  who  shall  de- 
liver me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ?"  but  in  de- 
liverance, the  climax  of  joy,  "  I  thank  God  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 

Yes,  this  vile  nature  of  ours  must  be  changed, 
that  we  may  discover  fully  our  high  relations  to  God 
and  man.  The  necessity  of  this  radical  change  of 
our  fallen  character  is  emphatically  declared  in  the 
infallible  words  of  our  Saviour  to  Nicodemus:  "Ex- 
cept a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he 
cannot  enter  the  kingdom  of  God."  This  is  the  de- 
cree of  the  great  Master,  from  which  there  is  no  re- 
treat without  loss.  Man  must  come  by  divine  ar- 
rangement under  this  awful  transformation  in  order 
to  appreciate  those  glorious  teachings  of  the  all-wise 
Witness,  who  imparts  knowledge  on  a  plane  that 
human  reason  cannot  fully  reach.  Granting  all 
that  is  right  to  the  high  claims  of  man's  reason, 
there  are  grand  truths  which  ought  not  and  cannot 


Witness  of  the  Spirit.  123 

be  submitted  to  the  standard  of  its  tribunal  for  a 
safe  verdict.  It  is  not  expected  of  a  person  always 
blind  to  know  the  beauties  of  nature,  the  glory  and 
benefit  of  the  sun's  light.  No  man  can  read  the 
Greek  or  Hebrew  language,  who  is  not  acquainted 
with  their  characters  and  principles.  The  world  would 
not  call  upon  a  Tyro  in  mathematics  to  calculate 
the  intricate  movements  of  the  complex  machinery 
of  the  universe  ;  but  upon  him,  who,  with  thehigher 
branches  of  this  world-searching  science,  has  stood 
by  experience  on  the  plane  of  the  eccentric  comet 
and  the  ever  revolving  orbs  of  space. 

Our  great  teacher,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  seals  this 
truth,  as  a  guide  to  the  philosophy  of  mankind ; 
"Except  a  man  be  born  again  (from  above,} 
he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  We  claim 
that  this  word  of  the  Master  teaches  among 
other  things  that  our  sinful  natures  must  be  regen- 
erated by  the  Holy  Spirit  before  we  can  comprehend 
in  heaven's  clear  light  those  wonderful  facts  that 
stand  like  blazing  suns  on  the  high  elevation,  upon 
which  he  does  his  effectual  and  sublime  work.  The 
Apostle  Paul  has  graphical^  delineated  this  grand 
idea  in  the  following  language:  "The  natural  man 
receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  for 
they  are  foolishness  unto  him  ;  neither  can  he  know 
them,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned." 

The  methods  of  instruction  of  this  august  Witness 
impart  knowledge  with  the  certainty  of  demonstra- 
tion, and  carries  satisfactory  evidence  to  every  heart 
that  submits  implicitly  and  faithfully  to  His  divine 


124  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

teachings.  His  processes  are  as  certain  in  the  mind 
of  the  regenerated  believer,  as  the  conclusions  of 
geometry  are  to  the  student.  He  draws  his  diagrams 
blazing  with  the  light  of  the  eternal  Spirit,  and 
stamps,  with  electric  speed,  the  full  knowledge  of 
demonstration  on  the  soul.  It  is  the  part  of  wisdom 
in  man  to  submit  his  will  with  all  the  pride  of  rea- 
son to  the  word  and  ruling  of  the  Spirit.  This  po- 
sition is  sustained  by  a  cardinal  truth  of  the  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ  who  declares  "if  any  man  will  do 
His  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it 
be  of  God."  The  words  of  the  Master  appear  to  im- 
port surely  that  we  must  do  the  will  of  God  before 
we* can  know  the  truth  of  the  doctrine,  whatever  it 
may  be.  Doing  God's  will,  therefore,  is  the  great 
key  to  unlock  heaven  and  bring  down  its  light  and 
glory.  But  the  fearful  implication  speaks  from  this 
same  impressive  language  that  man  can  fail  to  do 
the  will  of  God,  and  lose  the  eternal  reward  of  the 
promised  knowledge. 

The  inspired  words  of  the  text  show  that  Jehovah 
has  embraced  in  this  stupendous  transaction  two 
witnesses  of  the  highest  authority.  The  Holy  Spirit 
and  the  spirit  of  man.  Heaven  and  earth  stand  side 
by  side  in  the  mighty  decision  that  affects  the  final 
and  eternal  destiny  of  the  creature.  The  faithful 
Witness  lifts  the  curtain  of  the  believer's  heart,  and 
points  with  index  finger  his  active  consciousness  to 
the  first  stroke  and  place  of  conviction.  He  rolls 
back  the  checkered  pages  of  memory,  and  restores 
the  "wormwood  and  the  gall."     He  flashes  over  his 


Witness  of  the  Spirit.  125 

soul  the  gracious  light  of  the  day  of  his  awakening 
from  the  terrible  sleep  of  sin.  He  presents  to  his 
grateful  heart  the  radiant  arm  of  Mercy  staying  the 
ready  sword  of  justice  ;  above  all,  He  stretches  before 
the  enraptured  vision  the  omnipotent  hand  that 
sundered  the  remorseless  chain  which  bound  his 
captive  spirit,  and  made  him  a  free  man  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

With  this  accumulated  flood  of  testimony,  He  ap- 
peals to  the  throbbing,  humbled,  thankful  heart  of 
the  christian  who  exclaims  with  all  the  emphasis 
and  truthfulness  of  his  soul,  "  The  Spirit  itself  bear- 
eth  witness  with  our  spirit  that  we  are  the  children 
of  God ;  he  that  believeth  on  the  son  of  God  hath 
the  witness  in  himself." 

III.   The  unspeakable  reward  of  accepting  the  Witness. 

The  man  who  has  accepted  this  Holy  Witness  and 
submitted  to  be  "  led  of  the  Spirit"  in  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  his  eventful  career,  now  occupies  an  ele- 
vated position  above  the  level  of  nature,  from  which 
his  eye  can  sweep  with  accuracy  the  field  of  life's 
and  death's  realities,  and  measure  with  composure 
his  responsible  relations  amid  the  mighty  revolu- 
tions of  men  and  things.  He  has  fled  from  the  city 
of  destruction  in  the  plain.  He  has  ascended  the 
resplendent  summit  of  Calvary,  to  which  the  great 
Witness  has  led,  and  taken  his  stand  safe  beneath  the 
Cross  on  the  hallowed  brow  of  that  sacred  mount. 
He  sees  below  the  world's  dreadful  conflict.  He 
reads  the  doom  of  fallen  impenitent  man  amid  the 


1^6  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

angry  clin  of  the  infuriated  mob  that  press  hard  the 
innocent  steps  of  Jesus.  He  hears  distinctly  the 
maddened  shouts  of  Satan's  hosts  that  would  stifle 
the  great  voice  of  truth,  and  settle  its  eternal  decis- 
ions with  the  thundering  noise  of  the  multitude. 
Though  safe  beside  the  Cross,  he  trembles  for  the 
curse  of  unbelief  which  is  written  in  characters  of 
torment  upon  the  brow  of  Priest,  Scribe,  and  all  who 
reject  Jesus,  saying,  "He  saved  others;  himself  he 
cannot  save;  let  Him  come  down  from  the  cross, 
and  we  will  believe  in  Him." 

Under  the  flood  of  divine  light  that  pours  from 
the  Cross  upon  his  submissive  head,  he  sees  with 
faith  and  patience  the  mighty  wheels  of  God's  provi- 
dence, as  they  roll  out  in  rapid  succession  the  start- 
ling destinies  of  men  and  nations  according  to  their 
deeds.  When  the  hand  of  affliction  is  twisting 
every  nerve  of  his  inmost  heart,  he  bows  his  humble 
head,  and  hears  his  Father's  voice,  "  I  will  not  leave 
thee,  nor  forsake  thee."  If  Satan  marshals  his  ma- 
lignant hosts  and  hurls  his  fiery  darts,  his  ready  re- 
fuge lies  behind  the  Cross.  He  looks  upon  the  cross 
and  reads  in  the  blazing  handwriting  of  Deity,  death 
and  victory.  He  turns  his  eye  to  the  dark  gateway 
of  the  tomb  of  every  mortal.  Amid  the  gloom  that 
shrouds  the  dreadful  entrance,  the  faithful  Witness 
pours  the  light  of  Calvary,  and  the  trusting  soul  of 
the  christian  man  traces  on  its  pale  arch,  "  Death  is 
swallowed  up  in  victory;  0  death,  where  is  thy 
sting  ?  0  grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ?" 

The  last  visions  of  this  transitory  world  are  fading 


Witness  of  the  Spirit.  127 

fast  amid  the  declining  energies  of  mortal  life.  His 
quickening  eye  sweeps  the  field  of  his  earthly  ca- 
reer, trials  and  duty.  He  feels  the  powers  of  the 
world  to  come,  and,  in  the  spirit  of  his  divine  Mas- 
ter, he  exclaims  in  triumph,  "  It  is  finished."  In 
the  dreadful  agonies  of  expiring  nature,  he  holds 
with  unflinching  grasp  the  mighty  Cross.  This 
glorious  symbol  of  death  and  life,  radiant  with 
heaven's  eternal  light,  transports  him  above  the  dis- 
mal portal  of  the  grave. 

Its  divine  magnetism  lifts  his  entranced  soul 
higher  and  higher  amid  the  unfolding  and  unfading 
glories  of  the  heavenly  Canaan,  till  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem, flooded  with  the  overwhelming  splendor  of  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness,  breaks  upon  his  ravished 
vision,  and  throws  wide  its  dazzling  gates  to  wel- 
come him  whom  Jesus  loved  ;  and  in  his  home  of 
eternal  day  with  reunited  family,  his  ransomed 
powers  forever  and  ever  stretch  along  the  infinite 
scale  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  progress,  and  meas- 
ure the  ever-widening  fields  of  everlasting  bliss. 


128  North  Carolina  Sermons. 


CHRISTIAN  HOLINESS. 

By  Rev.  Tiios.  S.  Campbell. 
Of  the  North  Carolina  Conference. 


This  is  the  law  of  the  house:  upon  the  top  of  the  mountain  the  whole 
limit  thereof  roundabout  shall  be  most  holy.  Behold  this  is  the  law 
of  the  house.— Ezek.  xliii:  12. 

But  as  He  which  hath  called  you  is  holy,  so  be  ye  holy  in  al1  manner 
of  conversation  ;  Because  it  is  written.  Be  ye  holy;  for  I  am  holy.— I 
Peter,  i:  15, 16. 

The  prophet  gave  assurance  that  when  God's  peo- 
ple should  be  released  from  captivity  and  restored 
to  their  native  land,  the  temple  being  rebuilt  and  all 
the  sanctities  of  God's  service  observed,  holiness 
would  be  their  distinguishing  characteristic.  The 
house  where  God  is  worshipped  should  be  inscribed 
with  holiness.  "This  is  the  law  of  the  house  *  * 
*  The  whole  limit  thereof  shall  be  most  holy,"  &c. 
This  house  and  the  law  pertaining  to  it,  may  be 
properly  regarded  as  symbolical  of  the  church  in 
general ;  or  specifically  of  the  house  where  God  is 
statedty  worshipped.  It  should  be  regarded  as  a 
holy  place.  "  Ye  shall  reverence  my  sanctuary." 
For  any  other  than  the  worship  of  God,  and  that 
which  properly  pertains  to  his  service,  the  house  of 
God  should  never  be  used.  "  This  is  the  law  of  the 
house."  The  church,  in  the  aggregate  of  its  mem- 
bers, in  all  things  relating  to  moral  discipline  and 
in  all  the  elements  of  moral  character  in  each  mem- 


Christian  Holiness.  129 

ber,  should  be  holy.  The  whole  economy  of  God  in 
the  Bible  aims  at  the  restoration  of  man's  moral  na- 
ture to  the  lost  image  of  God.  A  church  has  been 
organized  for  this  end  ;  all  its  ceremonies  and  ordi- 
nances bear  the  impress  of  holiness ;  so  that  man 
may  be  raised  to  an  apprehension  of  its  nature,  a 
knowledge  of  its  necessity  and  the  attainment  of  its 
blessedness.  Here  is  inscribed  the  law  of  the  church. 
It  is  the  law  of  holiness.  Its  doctrines,  its  discipline? 
its  morals,  its  members,  shall  conform  to  this  law. 
This  applies  specially  and  particularly  to  the  char- 
acter, the  life,  and  the  conversation  (example)  of  its 
members.  As  he  which  hath  called  you  is  holy,  so 
be  ye  in  all  manner  of  conversation — i.  e.,  in  all 
things.  It  is  of  incalculable  importance  that  we 
learn  what  the  gospel  proposes  as  our  present  duty 
and  personal  privilege,  and  what  spiritual  excel- 
lence it  has  for  us  now.  It  designs  that  the  church 
shall  be  useful  in  securing  the  holiness  of  its  mem- 
bers ;  and  further  useful  by  diffusing  holiness  and 
saving  the  world.  By  its  organization  and  its  mis- 
sion, it  is  intended  to  be  a  power  in  the  earth.  The 
greatest  power  of  the  church  is  in  its  holiness.  We 
may  build  churches,  found  charities,  promote  learn- 
ing, educate  ministers,  send  out  missionaries,  hold 
protracted  meetings,  have  revivals,  increase  our 
numbers  and  extend  our  borders,  but  all  will  be  in 
vain  if  we  fail  to  see  and  seek  that  spiritual  perfec- 
tion which  the  Bible  places  within  our  reach.  God 
requires  holiness  and  that  in  perfection.  "  Walk 
before  me  and  be  thou  perfect."     "  Be  ye  therefore 


130  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

perfect."     "  Let  us  go  on  to  perfection."     But  what 
is  this  holiness — this  perfection  ? 

God  only  is  absolutely  holy.  His  holiness  is  in- 
finite purity.  "  Who  is  like  unto  Thee,  glorious  in 
holiness?"  He  is  usually  designated  "  The  Holy 
One  of  Israel."  Watson  says:  "The  holiness  of  God 
is  that  principle  which  causes  him  to  prescribe  jus- 
tice, mercy  and  truth,  and  to  forbid  their  opposites. 
This  makes  him  love  righteousness  and  condemn 
wickedness."  The  holiness  of  a  moral  agent  is  con- 
formity to  the  known  will  of  God.  "  The  brightest 
and  loveliest  idea  that  can  enter  the  human  mind 
is  that  of  moral  order  and  purity  of  heart."  Holi- 
ness is  purity  of  heart  and  righteousness  of  life.  The 
full  idea  may  be  expressed  by  the  term  uprightness. 
A  staff  is  mathematically  upright  when  it  stands 
perpendicular  to  a  plane.  So  we  are  risen  from  our 
fallen  condition  by  recovering  grace.  This  grace 
secures  in  us  experimentally  and  practically,  con- 
formity to  the  will  of  God.  This  includes  our  justi- 
fication and  thorough  renovation.  Justification  or 
pardoning  grace  removes  our  guilt  and  condemna- 
tion. This  is  granted  through  the  merit  of  Christ, 
and  entitles  us  to  heaven.  The  inward  renewal  fits 
us  for  heaven  by  the  destruction  of  sin.  Without 
the  merit  of  Christ  we  could  have  no  claim  to  glory; 
without  the  new  creation  no  fitness  for  it.  By  justi- 
fication we  become  children  and  heirs  of  God.  By 
holiness  we  are  made  meet  to  be  partakers  of  the  in- 
heritance of  the  saints.  A  minor  may  be  heir  to  an 
estate  but  lack  the  qualification  to  possess  and  en- 


Christian  Holiness.  131 

joy  it.  But  when  we  are  brought  into  this  gracious 
state  we  are  at  once  both  entitled  and  qualified.  "As 
many  as  received  him  to  them  gave  he  power  (right 
or  privilege)  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  which  were 
*  *  born  of  God."  Purity  of  heart  is  the  qualifi- 
cation :  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart;  for  they 
shall  see  God."  This  purity  consists  in  the  removal 
of  sin  and  sinful  principles,  which  is  called  anew 
creation.  "If  any  man  be  in  Christ  he  is  a  new 
creature,"  or  there  is  a  new  creation — he  is  created 
anew.  Out  of  the  elements  of  the  moral  wreck  God 
creates  a  new  spiritual  man  bearing  his  own  image. 
In  physics,  any  precious  metal,  as  gold,  is  said  to 
be  pure  when  all  alloy  is  removed.  So  the  heart  is 
pure  when  cleansed  from  the  dross  of  carnality  and 
the  alloy  of  unrighteousness.  "  I  will  turn  my  hand 
upon  thee  and  purely  purge  away  thy  dross  and 
takeaway  all  thy  sin."  "  He  will  sit  as  a  refiner 
and  purifier  of  silver  and  purge  them  as  gold  and 
silver."  "  He  shall  baptize  them  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  with  fire."  He  will  make  a  thorough  and 
complete  purification.  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
cleanseth  from  all  sin.  He  is  faithful  to  cleanse 
from  all  unrighteousness."  We  hence  find  the  terms 
saved,  sprinkled,  purged,  cleansed,  used  as  expres- 
sive of  the  Spirit's  operations.  Not  a  few7  have  fallen 
into  the  error  that  the  change  indicated  is  gradual — 
that  we  gradually  come  out  of  the  thraldom  of  sin 
and  are  gradually  restored  to  spiritual  life  and 
health.  But  all  the  figures  employed  to  aid  our 
ideas  are  such  as  to  impress  the  thought  that  the  work 


132  North  Carolina  Sermons, 

is  affected  by  a  word  or  a  spiritual  influence  as  sure- 
ly as  that  Christ  restored  sight  to  the  blind,  cleansed 
the  leper,  raised  the  dead  and  cast  out  devils  with  a 
word.  If  He  is  approached  with  earnest  petition, 
"  Lord  if  thou  wilt,  thou  canst  make  me  clean,"  He 
will  respond  "  I  will,  be  thou  clean."  Thou  art  then 
raised  not  partially  but  entirely  from  the  death  of 
sin  unto  the  life  of  righteousness.  The  spiritual  be- 
ing is  renewed,  created  anew— renovated.  The  first 
stage  of  this  work  is  usually  called  regeneration. 
This  word  occurs  only  twice  in  the  Bible  (Matt,  xix* 
28  ;  Titus  iii:  5),  and  is  clearl}7  the  same  as  trans- 
formation. "  Be  ye  transfoimed  by  the  renewing  of 
your  minds."  For  the  want  of  better  language  we 
speak  of  the  second  stage  which  is  properly  the  de- 
velopement  and  maturity  of  the  grace  and  virtues 
implanted  in  us  by  the  renewing  of  the  spirit  of  God. 
Holiness  implies,  says  Watson,  both  the  regenera- 
tion of  those  who  have  penitently  received  Christ 
and  the  maturity  of  all  the  graces  of  their  new  na- 
ture, by  the  same  influences  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
This  is  holiness  which  means  wholeness  or  com- 
pleteness in  fixedness  of  purpose  and  integrity  of 
moral  character.  It  is  an  eye  single  and  a  heart 
fixed.  We  may  legitimately  call  this  perfection  or 
completeness  of  christian  character.  First  there  is 
purity,  then  maturity.  According  to  this  teaching, 
we  begin  a  new  life  when  renewed  in  the  spirit  of 
our  mind.  Then  leaving  the  first  principles  we  go 
on  to  perfection  or  maturity.  Mr.  Wesley  says 
"  The  new  birth  is  the  entrance  to  holiness — the  gate 


Christian  Holiness.  133 

to  full  salvation.  Here  inward  and  outward  holi- 
ness begins.  We  then  grow  up."  He  illustrates  his 
idea  by  a  child  born  into  the  world  (a  perfect  hu- 
man being)  whose  physical  being  becomes  stronger 
and  larger  by  degrees.  So  there  are  different  stages 
of  the  christian  life  as  of  the  natural.  We  are  born 
of  the  Spirit,  then  increase  in  stature  until  we  are 
matured  or  perfectly  developed.  Such  a  life  as  God 
imparts  to  the  humble  and  contrite  believer,  will 
evince  its  presence  and  power  by  all  the  activities  of 
holy  obedience.  The  corn,  or  germ  of  grace,  will 
show  itself  not  merely  in  the  peering  of  the  tender 
plant,  and  growth  of  the  sturdy  stalk,  but  the  full 
corn  in  the  ear.  Hungering  and  thirsting  after 
righteousness — an  all-absorbing  desire  for  holiness — 
is  the  legitimate  effect  of  that  sanctifying  spirit  im- 
parted to  them  in  the  work  of  their  new  creation. 
I  will  here  say,  there  appears  at  this  age  seemingly 
in  the  minds  of  many  a  less  distinct  idea  of  what  is 
meant  by  the  terms  sanctification,  holiness  and  per- 
fection, than  in  the  earlier  ages  of  our  church.  These 
terms  are  frequently  used  in  technical  theology  to 
express  one  and  the  same  thing,  and  at  other  times 
to  express  different  stages  and  attainments  of  the 
christian  life.  They  are  frequently  used  inter- 
changeably ;  so  that  the  growth  and  maturity  of 
which  we  have  spoken  are  expressed  by  the  one 
word,  sanctification,  and  this  so  frequently  that 
sanctification  is  made  to  denote  the  highest  attain- 
ment and  privilege  of  the  believer.     There  are  three 

kinds  of  sanctification  taught  in  the  Bible,  or  I  ought 
9 


134  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

to  say  the  term  embraces  three  distinct  ideas.  1. 
Ceremonial  sanctification  is  frequently  inculcated  in 
the  Scriptures  and  should  now  be  applied  to  church 
purity — a  moral  life  and  due  observance  of  the  ordi- 
nances. 2.  Separation  to  the  service  of  God.  "Come 
out  and  be  ye  separate."  This  is  properly  consecra- 
tion in  fact,  such  as  every  justified  and  regenerate 
believer  has  made  of  himself  when  he  gave  up  his 
sins,  and  with  entire  submission  surrendered  his 
heart  to  God.  No  one  can  be  converted,  using  the 
term  to  mean,  changed  in  the  affections  and  tenden- 
cies of  his  heart,  unless  he  is  thus  sanctified.  Be- 
lievers are  therefore  spoken  of  as  the  sanctified  which 
are  in  Christ  who  are  called  lo  a  holy  life.  3.  In- 
wrought holiness  is  also  expressed  by  the  term. 
Sanctification  is  used  twenty-nine  times  in  the  New 
Testament;  in  fourteen  it  means  to  make  holy  by 
consecration,  formal  devotion  to  God,  and  in  twelve 
to  purify — make  holy  really. 

The  celebrated  Arminius  says  :  "1.  Sanctification 
is  an  act  by  which  anything  is  separated  from  a 
common  and  consecrated  to  a  divine  use.  2.  It  is  a 
gracious  act  of  God  hy  which  He  purifies  man,  who 
is  a  sinner  and  yet  a  believer,  from  darkness,  igno- 
rance and  indwelling  sin,  and  imbues  him  with  the 
spirit  of  knowledge,  righteousness  and  true  holiness; 
so  that  being  separated  from  the  world  he  lives  to 
God."  Sanctification  is,  then,  properly  the  occasion, 
means  or  process  of  securing  holiness  and  perfecting 
that  holiness,  attaining  to  perfection.  A  misappre- 
hension of  many  as  to  its  nature  has  led  to  mistakes 


Christian  Holiness.  135 

and  originated  errors  that  have  brought  them  to  the 
verge  of  fanaticism,  if  not  into  it — such  as,  that  it  is 
a  work  different  from  regeneration  and  to  be  sought 
for  as  we  seek  our  first  gracious  state  with  bitter  soul- 
anguish  and  with  strong  crying  and  tears.  Mr. 
Wesley  before  he  came  to  Georgia  held  and  preached 
that  the  sanctification  of  human  nature  is  accom- 
plished by  human  sufferings  ;  and  that  death  will 
destroy  the  body  of  sin.  Later  in  life,  and  before 
fully  recovered  from  error  on  this  subject,  he  said 
that  until  sanctification  is  inwrought,  our  holiness 
is  mixed.  We  are  humble,  but  not  entirely ;  our 
humility  is  mixed  with  pride;  meek,  but  that  is 
mixed  with  anger  or  some  turbulent  passion.  Love 
to  God  is  damped  by  love  to  some  creature.  Will  is 
submissive,  but  not  wholly.  Many  accepting  this 
as  the  true  Wesleyan  theory  and  the  correct  expo- 
nent of  Methodist  doctrine  on  this  important  sub- 
ject, have  never  been  able  to  obtain  a  theory  or  spir- 
itual state  that  is  satisfactory.  The  fear  is  that  many 
base  their  theory  more  upon  a  defective  experience 
than  upon  the  Bible.  This  blessed  book,  correctly 
and  consistent^  interpreted,  nowhere  sanctions  the 
idea  of  such  a  mixture  or  muddle  in  the  experience 
of  him  whose  heart  is  united  in  confidence  and  af- 
fection to  God.  The  only  two  Scriptures  relied  upon 
to  sustain  such  a  low  view  of  christian  experience 
are  I  Cor.  iii:  3,  4,  and  I  Thess.  v:  23.  Here  in  Cor- 
inthians Paul  is  speaking  of  them  as  carnal  and  in 
chapter  1,2  he  speaks  of  these  same  as  sanctified 
in  Christ  Jesus,  called  to  be  saints,  i.  e.,  holy  ones. 


136  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

We  must  then  conclude  that  the  term  carnal  used 
as  descriptive  of  these  christians  does  not  mean  that 
they  were  in  sin;  but  that  they  were  human,  weak, 
imperfect,  and  therefore  showed  these  evidences  of 
immaturity  or  spiritual  infancy — babyhood;  for 
carnal  (ver.  3)  and  babes  in  Christ  (ver.  1)  are  synon- 
ymous. In  Thessalonians  when  Paul  prays,  "the 
very  God  of  peace  sanctify  you  wholly,"  &c,  he  prays- 
that  God  would  devote,  consecrate  them  completely; 
fully  grant  them  the  complement  of  their  regenera- 
tion, perfect  holiness ;  that  thus  being  the  Lord's- 
entirely  they  might  lead  a  holy  life  and  be  kept 
holy,  in  body,  soul  and  spirit,  to  the  end.  What  is 
this  but  to  be  lifted  out  of  sin  on  to  the  high  plane 
of  a  holy  life  ?  "  It  shall  be  called  the  way  of  holi- 
ness. The  unclean  shall  not  pass  over  it."  I  John,, 
i:  9,  shows  that  there  is  as  ample  provision  for  cleans- 
ing from  all  unrighteousness,  as  for  the  forgiveness 
of  sin.  We  may  ask  if  any  one  has  saving  faith  at 
all,  whose  desire  falls  below  the  wish,  purpose  and 
effort  to  comprehend  this  complement  of  grace  in 
Christ?  The  mistake  which  includes  the  idea  that 
the  christian's  experience  is  mixed  lies  in  accepting 
the  last  twelve  verses  of  the  eighth  chapter  of  Ro- 
mans as  the  exponent  of  a  christian's  experience. 
As  though  is  true  of  a  believer  that  he  is  in  "  bond- 
age sold  under  sin ;"  that  sin  dwells  in  him  bring- 
ing him  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 
If  this  is  a  correct  representation  of  christian  expe- 
rience it  is  indeed  mixed,  and  a  muddle  is  made  of 
it.     This  view  leaves  the  christian  struggling  with 


Christian  Holiness.  137 

the  body  of  sin  all  his  life :    and  his  religion  is  a 
fight  without  a  victory,  a  toil  without  rest,  and  only 
a  trouble  and  sorrow.     Yea,  we  must  believe  that  a 
man  is  free  and  yet  in  bondage;  in  health  and  yet 
sick  ;  a  servant  and  yet  a  rebel ;  alive  and  dead  ;  a 
saint  and  yet  a  sinner.     To  set  the  matter  in  its  true 
light,  Paul  in  the  first  five  chapters  of  this  epistle 
treats  of  righteousness  and  the  remission  of  sins;  in 
the  6th  and  7th  chapters,  of  the  power  to  conquer 
sin  and  live  in  a  holy  manner.     Then  he  draws  the 
conclusion  in  the  8th  chapter,  1,  2  ver. :     "  There  is 
therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them  which  are 
in  Christ  Jesus  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh  but  after 
the  spirit."     The  emphasis  lies  in  the  clauses  in 
€hrist  and  walk  after  the  spirit.     The  law  of  the  spirit 
of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me  free,  i.  e.,  the 
life-giving  spirit  hath  made  me  free.     When  Paul 
says  "O  wretched  man  that  I  am  !  who  shall  deliver 
me?"  he  is  personating  one  not  delivered.     He  does 
not  say,  0  wretched  christian,  or  regenerate  creature; 
but  0  wretched   man,  doubtless  intending  by  the 
term,  man,  one  who  is  struggling  in  the  bondage  and 
darkness  of  sin — fallen  nan,  convinced  of  his  ruin 
and  helplessness.     This  was  the  experience  of  one 
who  deplored  his  lost  and  helpless  estate  ;  but  not 
of  him  who  had  passed   from  death  unto  life.     He 
dwelleth  in  the  sunlight  and  rejoices  in  the  liberty 
of  God's  dear  children.     Paul  shows  in  these  chap- 
ters what  sort  of  persons  we  are  before  grace  changes 
us   and  what  character    we   have   after  grace  has 
changed  us. 


138  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

The  work  of  purification  or  sanctification  makes 
us  holy  by  the  removal  of  sinful  dispositions  and 
tendencies.  The  change  wrought  in  us  by  the  Spirit 
is  radical  and  thorough.  Call  it  by  what  name  you 
please,  it  makes  us  free  from  the  power  and  love  of 
sin.  When  known  sin  is  indulged  there  is  guilt  and 
condemnation.  The  doctrine  of  sin  in  believers — the 
term  believers  signifying  justified  and  regenerate 
christians — is  a  mistake.  Jesus  says :  "He  that  com- 
mitteth  sin  is  the  servant  of  sin.  Ye  shall  know  the 
truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free.  If  the  Son 
shall  make  you  free  ye  shall  be  free  indeed.  He 
that  committeth  sin  is  of  the  devil."  "  Whosoever  is 
born  of  God  doth  not  commit  sin  ;  for  his  seed  (the 
vital  principle  of  a  holy  life)  remaineth  in  him  and 
he  cannot  sin,  because  he  is  born  of  God.  Whoso- 
ever abideth  in  him  sinneth  not."  But  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  what  sin  is.  I  am  convinced  that 
many  have  about  as  vague  ideas  of  sin  as  they  have 
of  holiness.  The  theological  definition  is  :  A  volun- 
untary  departure  of  a  moral  agent  from  a  known 
rule  of  duty  prescribed  by  God,  or  a  voluntary  vio- 
lation of  a  divine  command.  The  Bible  definition 
is  "  Sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law."  "All  un- 
righteousness is  sin."  We  may  add  as  to  its  essence : 
it  is  inclination,  propensity,  to  do  our  own  will 
rather  than  the  will  of  God.  There  are  three  classes 
of  sin  :  Violation  of  precepts,  neglect  of  injunctions, 
defect  in  the  discharge  of  duty.  The  grand  design 
of  the  gospel  is  to  deliver  and  restore  man  to  spirit- 
ual health  and  full  allegiance;  to  bring  him  into 


Christian  Holiness.  139 

full  conformity  to  the  image  of  Christ,  and  impart 
to  him  the  spirit  or  mind  of  Jesus.  It  is  to  lift  him 
out  of  the  pit  of  sin,  wash  away  the  defilements  of 
sin,  plant  his  feet  upon  the  rock,  establish  his  go- 
ings ;  and  put  a  new  song  in  his  mouth.  "  Wash  me 
thoroughly  and  cleanse  me ;  create  in  me  a  clean 
heart  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within  me.  I  will 
sprinkle  clean  water  upon  yon,  and  ye  shall  be  clean; 
from  all  your  filthiness  will  I  cleanse  you.  I  will 
also  save  you  from  all  your  uncleannesses.  Though 
your  sins  be  as  scarlet  they  shall  be  white  as  snow." 
In  the  office  of  our  church  for  the  Lord's  Supper 
the  Collect  in  the  service  of  consecration  contains 
the  following  petition  :  "  Cleanse  the  thoughts  of 
our  hearts  by  the  inspiration  of  thy  Holy  Spirit  that 
we  may  perfectly  love  Thee  and  worthily  magnify 
Thy  holy  name.  "Here  we  pray  as  authorized  by  the 
Scriptures  quoted,  for  the  destruction  of  sin,  sancti- 
fied affections  and  a  holy  life.  This  makes  the  heart 
right,  establishes  the  kingdom  of  God  within,  and 
conforms  us  to  the  divine  will.  This  is  holiness. 
It  is  radical  and  thorough.  The  sinful  principle  is 
removed  ;  the  old  man  put  off,  sin  renounced,  done 
away  ;  Christ  put  on,  accepted.  Being  divested  of 
sin  by  the  operation  of  God  we  secure  the  image  of 
Christ,  put  on  the  new  man  ;  We  are  imbued  with 
the  loveliness,  temperance,  patience  and  forbearance 
of  the  Lamb  of  God.  With  purified  affections  and 
all  inward  feelings  in  harmony  with  the  divine  will, 
we  delight  in  the  law  of  the  Lord  after  the  inward 
man,  and  love  him  with  all  the  heart.     "  Be  ye  holy, 


140  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

for  I  am  holy."  God  requires  it.  It  is  a  privilege, 
no  less  than  a  duty.  "The  Lord  thy  God  will  cir- 
cumcise thy  heart  to  love  the  Lord  with  all  thy 
heart."  This  circumcision  is  remission  of  sin  and 
purification  of  the  heart.  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart."  This  is  the  perfection 
of  holiness  taught  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 
Is  it  a  mark  that  we  can  never  reach  ;.  a  goal  that 
cannot  be  attained  ?  But  ye  see  your  calling,  breth- 
ren ;  ye  may  attain  unto  holiness  in  all  the  degrees 
of  moral  purity;  realize  maturity  of  the  christian  char- 
acter; be  strong  in  the  grace  that  is  in  Christ ;  and 
come  to  full  age,  perfect  in  Christ.  To  specify  a 
little :  This  perfection  is  maturity  in  religious  knowl- 
edge, such  as  Christ  prayed  might  be  enjoyed  by 
his  disciples  :  "  That  they  might  know  the  only  true 
God."  Then  shall  ye  know  if  ye  follow  on  to  know 
the  Lord.  The  higher  our  degree  of  knowledge,  the 
more  entire  and  earnest  will  be  our  consecration  and 
devotion  ;  the  more  completely  absorbed  in  Christ 
and  filled  with  the  love  of  God.  It  includes  matu- 
rity in  religious  experience.  He  enjoys  the  privi- 
lege shared  by  God's  ancient  servants — that  of  walk- 
ing with  God.  The  Father  says  "  I  will  dwell  in 
them  and  walk  in  them,  and  the}'  shall  be  my  sons 
and  daughters."  They  have  Christ  to  dwell  in  their 
hearts  and  are  rooted  and  grounded  in  love.  Ephs. 
iii:  14-19.  Hence  follows  entire  conformity  to  God's 
will  in  the  outward  life.  He  is  acknowledged  in  all 
our  ways;  and  we  respond  fully  to  the  precept  "  Be 
ye  therefore  perfect."     Or  to   change  the  form  from 


Christian  Holiness.  141 

the  imperative  to  the  potential,  "  Ye  shall  be  per- 
fect," we  find  it  both  possible  and  fully  within  our 
ability,  as  being  graciously  assisted,  to  be  perfectly 
conformed  to  the  will  of  our  father;  so  that  what- 
ever we  do  in  word  or  deed  we  shall  do  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus.  We  do  it  in  respect  of  his  au- 
thority and  with  hearty  good  will  to  glorify  him  in 
our  bodies  and  spirits,  which  are  his.  Such  are 
wholly  in  all  manner  of  conversation,  in  every  ex- 
pression of  the  temper  of  the  mind,  whether  by  word 
or  deed.  Such  we  conceive  to  be  the  character  of 
christian  holiness.  It  is  both  our  privilege  and 
duty  to  secure  it;  for  without  holiness  no  man  shall 
see  the  Lord. 

The  attainment  of  this  does  not  deliver  us  from 
infirmity,  exempt  us  from  temptation  or  make  us 
infallible.  The  highest  state  of  Christian  enjoy- 
ment, character  and  life,  is  consistent  with  the  in- 
firmities which  are  inseparable  from  us  while  on 
probation.  To  endure  to  the  end  implies  opposition 
and  struggle.  But  what  is  infirmity?  Let  us  not 
reckon  sin  an  infirmity,  as  drunkenness,  swearing, 
covetousness,  pride,  etc.  The  liability  to  fall  into 
these  or  any  other  sin  because  of  our  weakness,  is 
infirmity.  The  liability  to  misapprehend,  mistake, 
or  forget  truth,  and  duty,  is  infirmity.  It  is  imper- 
fection and  weakness  in  the  physical  and  intellect- 
ual man.  It  also  includes  frailty  in  the  moral  man; 
so  that  we  are  liable  to  do  wrong  and  may  sin. 
When  Solomon  says  "there  is  no  man  that  sinneth 
not,"  we  understand  that  he  recognizes  the  fact  that 


142  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

sin  is  an  ever  present  possibility  :  no  man  is  infalli- 
ble and  may  not  sin,  through  infirmity  or  otherwise. 
Mr.  Wesley  says  infirmity  is  in  our  human  nature 
while  sin  has  its  place  in  our  moral  nature.  Still 
he  and  others  come  near  teaching  that  the  suscepti- 
bility to  receive  wrong  impressions  and  the  conse- 
quent liability  to  fall  into  sin  are  closely  allied  to 
sin.  But  there  is  a  distinction  that  may  and  should 
be  preserved. 

Again  :  Holiness  even  in  perfection  does  not  ex- 
empt us  from  trial.  God  has  said  to  Abraham,  "walk 
before  me  and  be  perfect."  And  yet  God  tempted, 
tried  Abraham.  Gen.  xxii.  So,  Job  was  perfect  and 
upright ;  yet  was  sorely  tried  by  Satan.  James  i:  12 
pronounced  a  blessing  upon  those  who  are  thus  tried. 
The  highest  degree  of  virtue  and  spiritual  holiness 
are  consistent  with  these  contests  with  the  Tempter. 
The  blessed  Jesus  himself  was  compassed  with  in- 
firmity and  tempted  in  all  points  as  we  are.  The 
Son  of  God  was  infallible  and  could  not  err.  But 
he  whom  grace  supports  is  enabled  to  keep  himself 
unspotted  and  blameless  to  the  end. 

Every  believer  in  Christ  is  called  to  a  holy  life,  to 
be  a  saint,  is  sanctified  and  called.  It  is  his  voca- 
tion to  serve  God  in  holiness  and  righteousness. 
Many  do  thus  serve  him  :  never  losing  their  first 
love.  In  their  case  the  exhortation  to  repent  and 
do  the  first  works,  or  begin  again  with  first  princi- 
ples, is  not  necessary  and  would  be  inapplicable. 
They  have  served  God  with  a  pure  conscience ;  yet 
they  have  need  to  leave  the  (first)  principles  and  go 


Chkistian  Holiness.  143 

on  to  perfection.  In  the  case  of  not  a  few  the  fear 
is  that  they  decline,  or  inwardly  backslide,  by  yield- 
ing to  temptation  and  accustom  themselves  to  shun- 
ning the  cross,  neglecting  duty,  shirking  responsi- 
bility, and  indulging  practices  which  are  of  doubt- 
ful propriety  if  not  actually  sinful.  It  is  not  to  be 
wrondered  at  that  their  religion  becomes  a  form,  a 
burden,  a  mere  profession  and  shows  its  greatest 
zeal  and  power  in  church  machinery  and  the  suc- 
cess of  its  party.  These  have  need  to  "  repent  and 
do  the  first  works,"  to  begin  anew  to  cry  with  David 
(Psalm  li:  10-13)  "  Restore  unto  me,"  &c. 

The  discipline  we  are  under  here  requires  devel- 
opment and  improvement  according  to  our  ability. 
Holiness  is  the  mark  towards  which  we  are  to  press. 

We  are  living  in  the  world  not  merely  to  re- 
ceive good,  but  to  save  others.  "  Ye  are  the  light 
of  the  world.  Let  your  light  shine ;  so  shine,'7 
&c.  This,  properly  understood,  denotes  per- 
fect justice  or  rectitude  in  all  business  transactions 
and  the  purest  benevolence,  having  reference  to  that 
state  of  mind  when  selfishness  is  removed  and  sen- 
timents of  the  strictest  equity  prevail.  As  ye  would 
that  men  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them.  None 
but  the  pure  in  heart  reach  this  high  degree  of  jus- 
tice, truth  and  sincerity  in  all  things.  "  Follow 
peace  with  all  men  and  holiness,  without  which  no 
man  shall  see  the  Lord."  The  most  succesful,  the 
only  way  to  secure  this  is  to — 1.  Cherish  a  sense  of 
its  necessity  ;  and  2.  Conviction — a  strong  belief — 
of  the  duty  to  seek  it.    Phil,   ii:  12,  13.      Work  out 


144  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

your  own  salvation — i.  e.,  form,  build  your  religious 
character. 

To  him  that  hath  shall  be  given  and  he  shall  have 
abundance.  Consecrate  yourselves  to  this  one  great 
work,  remembering  God  hath  chosen  you  through 
sanctification  of  the  Spirit  and  belief  of  the  Truth. 

Salvation  in  its  beginning  and  completeness  is  by 
faith.  "  By  grace  are  ye  saved  through  faith."  Pen- 
itence, prayer  and  consecration  are  the  concomitants 
of  faith.  "  If  thou  belie  vest  with  all  thy  heart"  thou 
may  est  be  healed  and  saved  to  the  uttermost,  fully, 
completely  and  finally.  "According  to  thy  faith  so 
be  it  unto  thee."     Amen. 


[Published  at  the  request  of  the  family.] 

FUNEAL  SERMON 

Of  Pannie  Sherwood  York,  Daughter  of  Rev. 

B.  York,  D.  D.,  preached  at  O'Kelly's 

Chapel,  the  20th  of  August,  1871. 

By  Rev.  L.  Branson,  A.  M., 
Of  the  North  Carolina  Local  Ministers'  Conference. 


And  the  poor  have  the  Gospel  preached  to  them.— Matthew  xi:  5. 

John  the  forerunner  had  fulfilled  his  active  mis- 
sion. It  was  now  his  destiny  to  fulfill  that  other 
and  more  difficult  part  of  a  pious  character — suffer- 
ing the  will  of  God.      Having  baptized  multitudes 


Funeral  Sermon.  145 

unto  repentance,  and  chastised  the  Pharisees  and 
Sadducees,  he  boldly  reproved  Herod  the  king  for 
his  wickedness,  thus  procuring  for  himself  arrest  and 
imprisonment  in  a  solitary  dungeon. 

Not  a  murmur  was  heard  from  his  lips ;  nor,  so 
far  as  we  know,  did  a  single  doubt  cross  his  pious 
mind  as  to  the  divinity  of  his  own  mission  or  that 
of  Christ  whom  he  had  so  gloriously  announced. 
His  deciples,  however,  seeing  his  imminent  danger, 
occupied  a  position  well  calculated  to  depress  and 
discourage ;  hence  John  sent  two  of  them  to  Christ 
asking,  "Art  thou  he  that  should  come,  or  do  we  look 
for  another?"  To  this  message  the  Saviour's  an- 
swer was  both  remarkable  and  divine.  Said  He ; 
"Go  and  show  John  again  those  things  which  ye  do 
see  and  hear.7'  Then,  referring  to  his  miracles  of 
power ;  such  as  '  restoring  the  sight  of  the  blind/ 
'  healing  the  lame,'  '  cleansing  the  lepers,'  '  unstop- 
ping the  deaf  ears/  and  '  raising  the  dead  to  life 
again/  he  enforces  conviction  of  his  Messiahship,  by 
a  still  higher  class  of  evidence,  in  the  words  of  the 
text — "  And  the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to 
them." 

Miracles  of  power  might  have  convinced  the  world 
of  a  Deity,  but  proclaiming  a  free  gospel  to  those 
unable  to  buy  is  a  continued  and  living  evidence  of 
of  the  Saviour's  redeeming  love. 

In  the  discussion  of  this  subject  I  shall  present  to 
your  view 


146  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

1.  Christianity  as  the  practical  working  of  a  great  mis- 
sionary  spirit. 

If  I  were  called  upon  to  point  out  any  two  acts  in 
the  life  of  Jesus  indicative  of  his  wisdom,  or  of  his 
divinity,  or  of  his  infinite  love,  I  should  unhesitating- 
ly direct  your  mind  to  '  Jesus  proclaiming  his  gos- 
pel to  the  poor ' — '  and  to  Jesus  taking  into  his  arms 
the  innocent,  infantile  world.' 

All  human  systems  uninspired  by  Christianity, 
look  first  to  the  learned  and  the  rich  of  earth  for  the 
propagation  of  prestige  and  power  ;  but  Christ's  sys- 
tem looks  to  the  innocent,  and  the  helpless — the  chil- 
dren and  the  poor. 

These  are  the  teachable,  impressable  classes, 
and  make  up  the  great  majority  of  the  world's  pop- 
ulation. The  true  church  is  built  upon  the  strength 
of  purity,  and  not  upon  man's  ivisdorn  or  power;  hence 
Christianity  has  always  sought  for  that  class  of  sub- 
jects that  could  be  most  easily  impressed  with  the 
lovely  truths  of  a  spiritual  religion.  The  plain  sim- 
ple teaching  of  repentance  and  faith — the  necessity 
of  a  change  of  heart  in  order  to  a  change  of  life,  takes 
hold  upon  the  great  masses  of  humanity. 

Human  religions  begin  the  work  outwardly  and 
expect  to  work  inward  and  downward  until  the 
heart  is  made  pure  and  fitted  for  heaven  ;  but  Chris- 
tianity would  first  cleanse  the  fountain,  that  every 
stream  flowing  therefrom  may  be  chaste  as  the  driven 
snow. 

Witness  the  results  of  the  doctrines  of  Confucius, 


Funeral  Sermon.  147 

which  have  made  the  millions  of  China  orderly  and 
prosperous  in  material  things — learned  and  artful 
in  mind — but  have  left  the  heart  of  a  great  nation 
unchanged,  and  full  of  idolatry  and  of  every  vile 
passion  that  ever  existed  in  the  race  of  man. 

Witness  again  the  workings  of  popery:  systematic 
beyond  precedent — stern  in  discipline  as  if  it  would 
iron  and  chain  down  the  passions  of  men.  And  yet 
the  spirit  of  this  great  beast  has  absorbed  the  very 
heart  blood  of  saints  by  the  thousand.  It  com- 
mences outwardly  but  can  never  reach  and  purify 
the  heart. 

In  the  present  age  and  in  every  age  of  the  past, 
every  denomination  of  christians  that  has  backslid- 
den into  ritualistic  formality,  has  invariably  lost  spir- 
ituality and  has  become  devoid  of  Christ's  great 
missionary  spirit,  which  estimates  beings  according 
to  the  worth  of  their  souls  and  not  in  reference  to 
their  wealth,  power  and  worldly  influence.  Christ 
embraces  the  poor  that  He  may  spiritualize  them, 
and  fit  them  to  enjoy  the  riches  of  life  and  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  eternity. 

The  fundamental  doctrine  of  experimental  relig- 
ion— the  truth  that  "ye  must  be  born  again,"  is 
one  of  the  very  foundation  stones  of  the  missionary 
spirit.  When  the  fire  of  grace  is  built  within,  burn- 
ing up  the  dross  of  sin,  every  sensibility  of  the  heart 
is  quickened,  and  magnetic  lines  are  opened  from 
the  new  born  soul  towards  every  other  soul  in  the 
universe  of  Cod.     The  soul  that  was  shut  up  in  the 


148  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

prison  house  of  sin,  is  now  free  as  a  bird  of  the  air, 
and  just  as  appreciative  of  the  beauties  around  it. 

That  soul  that  loved  no  other  soul,  and  only  loved 
itself  with  a  blasting  flame,  now  fired  by  grace  runs 
out  with  open  arms  of  affection  that  would  embrace 
all  the  world  of  sinners.  The  man  is  now  a  mis- 
sionary in  spirit  and  practice ;  and  the  more  he 
drinks  in  of  Christ's  spirit  the  more  he  becomes  a 
missionary.  He  may  not  travel  over  a  vast  terri- 
tory, and  may  never  carry  the  gospel  to  heathen 
lands,  but  if  he  has  the  spirit  of  the  Master  his  mis- 
sionary operations  will  be  seen  all  around  him,  so 
that,  within  his  sphere  of  action,  the  wilderness  will 
begin  to  blossom  as  the  rose. 

The  minister,  if  he  be  of  the  spirit  of  the  Master, 
is  always  a  missionary.  His  labors  will  tell  upon 
the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  great  masses,  and  soon 
these  same  masses  will  catch  the  same  divine  spirit, 
so  that  with  their  hands,  their  influence  and  their 
means,  they  help  the  minister  in  heralding  the  glad 
tidings  of  salvation  to  sinners.  A  spiritual  church 
will  always  be  a  missionary  church. 

Methodism  and  her  co-ordinate  branches  have  al- 
ways been  largely  missionary.  Missionary  opera- 
tions did  not  make  the  Wesleys  spiritual ;  but  spirit 
life  made  them  missionaries. 

So  long  as  Methodism  is  spiritual,  just  so  long  she 
will  use  the  necessary  appliances  for  carrying  vital 
Christianity  to  the  great  body  of  the  world's  popula- 
tion. 

It  is  heart-work,  a  pure  vital  religion  that  takes 


Funeral  Sermon,  149 

hold  upon  the  millions  of  children,  giving  them  the 
Bible,  and  spreading  to  their  view  the  glories  of  the 
cross. 

While  the  formal^  of  Popery  contracts  and  de- 
bases the  mind,  the  spirit  of  Christianity  opens  op 
to  the  young  the  beauties  of  the  educational  world. 

Thus  the  church,  in  all  her  successful  operations, 
is  supported  and  inspired  by  that  divine  missionary 
spirit,  originated  and  continued  by  the  world's  Re- 
deemer. 

I  present  to  your  view 

II.  Some  of  the  operations  of  woman  as  a  worker  in  the 
missionary  cause. 

If  Avoman  was  first  to  sin,  grievously  hath  she 
atoned  for  that  priority.  In  the  long  dark  ages  pre- 
ceding the  first  advent,  no  glorious  light  illumined 
her  pathway.  In  agony  she  beheld  the  son  shed 
the  blood  of  his  brother — in  bitterness  and  wailing 
she  beheld  the  children  of  her  travail  swept  by  the 
diluvian  waters,  and  not  one  devoted  son  able  to 
save  a  sinking  mother — in  the  long  night  of  Egyp- 
tian bondage  she  was  but  the  servant  of  servants. 

But  in  all  her  sufferings  and  degradation  the 
promise  of  God  that  "her  seed  should  bruise  the  ser- 
pent's head"  was  never  forgotten.  She  looked  with 
confidence  for  the  promised  Messiah  :  and  when  he 
came  woman  was  entrusted  with  his  youthful  train- 
ing. When  Calvary  was  baptized  with  the  Saviour's 
blood,  woman  was  last  to  leave  the  cross  :  and  when 

10 


150  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

Jesus  had  put  off  forever  the  habiliments  of  death, 
woman  was  first  to  view  the  sepulchre. 

She  commenced  the  new  era  at  a  par  value  with 
man,  and  now  for  these  eighteen  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-one years  she  has  been  man's  equal  in  devotion 
and  tenderness,  and  oftentimes  his-  superior  in  love 
and  in  suffering. 

Full  well  she  knows  that  where  there  is  most  light' 
and  religion  there  is  most  of  protection  and  happi- 
ness for  woman.  It  has  ever  been  her  practice  to 
carry  food  and  raiment  to  the  poor  distressed  in  the 
highways  and  hedges  of  life  :  and  none  are  more 
ready  to  kneel  by  the  agonizing  penitent  and  pour 
into  his  wounded  spirit  the  consolations  of  redeem- 
ing love. 

She  has  often  forsaken  the  dearest  earthly  ties  and 
gone  to  distant  lands  to  carry  instruction  to  heathen 
nations ;  and  as  the  banner  of  the  cross  has  pushed 
its  way  among  the  heathen  tribes  in  our  own  coun-1 
try,  woman  has  ever  been  near  it  with  her  earnest 
devotion  and  her  disinterested  love. 

In  the  great  Sunday  School  work  that  now  sweeps 
.-over  the  land,  woman  is  the  most  active  and  inspir- 
ing worker:  and  when,  in  the  celestial  parks  of  the 
golden  city,  Christ  shall  walk  with  the  redeemed  of 
earth,  gathering  to  his  divine  embrace  millions  of 
.children  saints,  many  of  our  sisters,  and  wives,  and 
mothers,  will  occupy  places  near  to  the  heart  of  the 
great  Redeemer. 


Funeral  Sermon,  151 

I  shall  now  present  to  your  view 
111.   The  character  of  lannie  Sherwood  York,  and  note 
in  what  respects  she  showed  forth  the  missionary  spirit 
of  our  Lord  and  Master. 

Sister  Fanny  Sherwood  York,  daughter  of  Rev. 
Brantley  and  Mary  Wells  York,  was  born  at  Trinity 
College,  Sept.  the  18th,  1837,  and  died  at  Raffia 
Badger  Institute,  June  the  6th,  1871. 

The  example  of  pious  parents  was  not  lost  upon 
her  early  childhood.  While  but  a  little  girl  she 
seemed  to  comprehend  the  great  doctrine  of  "  repent- 
ance and  faith,"  and  before  the  age  of  twelve  she  had 
connected  herself  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
South,  thus  beginning  to  show  forth  publicly,  by 
works,  her  confidence  in  Jesus. 

Her  subsequent  life  proves  to  the  world  the  ines- 
timable value  of  correct  parental  instruction,  and 
should  be  a  profitable  example  to  all  parents,  upon 
whom  rests  in  a  great  measure  the  salvation  of  their 
children.  We  should  also  remember  this,  as  an  in- 
stance of  conversion  in  childhood,  and  ever  hereaf- 
ter encourage  our  little  ones  to  cast  themselves  up- 
on Jesus.  The  child  that  is  old  enough  to  know 
when  sin  is  committed,  is  old  enough  to  repent  of 
sin  ;  and  he  that  is  sensible  of  sin,  may  also  be  sen- 
sible of  pardon. 

Our  sister  was  educated  principally  at  Olin  Col- 
lege in  a  class  consisting  of  herself  and  two  young 
men,  afterwards  lawyers  of  distinction.  Her  activ- 
ity and  strength  of  mind  was  such  that  none  sur- 
passed her  in  the  college  course  of  study.     Of  this 


152  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

class,  Fannie  Sherwood  York  and  Oliver  Fitz  Clegg 
having  lived  well  and  died  well,  have  entered,  we 
trust,  and  are  now  partakers  of  the  glories  of  the 
higher  temple. 

Sweet  memories  of  these  two,  who  have  received 
the  higher  honors,  will  ever  fall  encouragingly  upon 
the  heart  of  R  W.  York,  the  surviving  classmate. 

With  a  liberal  education,  sister  York  was  prepared 
to  enter  intelligently  upon  the  great  mission  of  life. 
With  a  spirit  gentle,  a  heart  pure,  and  emotions  warm, 
she  was  always  ready  to  enter  heartily  into  the 
Master's  work. 

About  this  time  in  her  history,  her  father,  having 
spent  some  twenty  years  in  laborious  educational 
and  missionary  labor,  found  himself,  though  full  of 
the  light  of  the  spirit,  shut  out  from  the  light  of  the 
world. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  this  young  sister  and 
daughter  entering  into  a  father's  affliction,  and  be- 
coming eyes  to  the  blind— a  constant  guide  and  sup- 
port to  one  whose  delight  and  joy  has  ever  been  to 
perform  the  labors  of  a  great  missionary  work.  Du- 
ring eighteen  long  years  of  physical  blindness,  on 
the  journey,  in  the  school  room,  in  the  study,  and 
by  the  bedside  of  this  afflicted  parent,  we  have  seen 
this  devoted  child. 

Thus  linking  her  destiny  with  that  of  a  great  mis- 
sionary, how  could  she  do  otherwise  than  imbibe 
the  spirit  of  this  devoted  work  ?  Accordingly  we 
find  her  ardently  attached  to  the  church  in  all  its 


Funeral  Sermon.  153 

interests,  and  ever  lending  a  helping  hand  in  every 

good  work. 

To  her  calling  as  a  teacher  she  was  devotedly  at- 
tached, looking  upon  the  work  as  preparatory  to  the 
extension  of  the  gospel.      She  sought  not   for  the 
speculative  joys  of  life,  but  found  constant  delight 
in  "  doing  with  her  might  whatever  her  hands  f6und 
to  do  "     She  was  a  sweet  and  dutiful  child,  ever  de- 
voting her  strength  and  energies  to  the  happiness 
of  those  around  her.     In  her  modest  simplicity  she 
regarded  herself  as  having  accomplished  but  little 
in  life ;  and  yet  many  a  weeping  friend  will  ever  re- 
member Miss  Fannie,  and  will  bestow  upon  her 
memory  words  of  honor  and  affection.    We  may  well 
celebrate  the  deeds  of  one  who  lived  so  full  of  phi- 
lanthropy—of one  so  absorbed  in   the  comfort  and 
happiness  of  those  she  loved.     Those  that  knew  her 
besti  will  be  able  to  say  many  daughters  have  done 
well,  but  Fannie  excelled  them  all. 

But  the  stern  test  of  piety  was  yet  to  come.  Through 
suffering  God  designed  to  give  her  perfection '  of 
christian  character.  The  stroke  of  bodily  affliction 
was  sudden  and  severe.  The  soul  and  body  that  had 
lived  together  for  33  years,  with  so  much  success  and 
harmony,  seemed  loath  to  take  a  final  adieu.  For 
ten  days  the  body  lay  on  the  confines  of  the  dark 
rtomb,  while  the  soul  stood  on  Pisgah's  top,  viewing 
with  rapture  the  sunny  land.  But  ere  the  pitcher 
at  the  fountain  was  broken,  or  the  golden  chord 
loosed,  an  angel  convoy  stood  beside  her  lingering 


254  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

soul   ready  to  bear  it  to  the  blissful  scenes  above. 
She  died  in  peace.     Her  rest  is  sweet  and  eternal 

"Sister,  thou  wast  mild  and  lovely^ 

Gentle  as  the  summer  breeze, 
Pleasant  as  the  air  of  evening, 

When  it  floats  among  the  trees. 

Peaceful  be  thy  silent  slumber, 

Peaceful  in  the  grave  so  low  ; 
Thou  no  more  wilt  join  our  number; 

Thou  no  more  our  songs  shall  know. 

Dearest  sister,  thou  hast  left  us  ; 

Here  thy  loss  we  deeply  feel ; 
But  '.is  God  that  hath  bereft  us  ; 

He  can  all  our  sorrows  heal. 

Yet  again  we  hope  to  meet  thee,. 

When  the  day  of  life  is  fled  ; 
Then  in  heaven  with  joy  to  greet  thee,. 

Where  no  farewell  tear  is  shed." 

The  religion  which  gave  our  sister  peace  in  life, 
and  victory  in  death,  will  comfort  the  bereaved  fam- 
ily. Her  public  example  as  a  christian  of  a  pure 
missionary  spirit,  will  serve  to  inspire  us  all,  with  a 
better  hope  and  a  more  lively  zeal,  in  the  angelic- 
work  of  educating  and  evangelizing  the  world. 


Christ  as  a  Saviou; 


155 


COMPLETENESS  OF  CHRIST  AS  A  SAVIOUR. 


By  H.  T.  Hudson,  IX  IX, 
Of  the  North  Carolina  Conference. 


For  in  Him  dwelleth  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily.    And 
ye  are  eomplete  in  Him.    Col.  ii :  9,  10. 

The  Divinity  of  Christ  is  clearly  set  forth  in  the 
preceding  chapter  where  it  is  said:  "For  by  Him 
were  all  things  created  that  are  in  heaven,  and  that 
are  in  earth,  visible  and  invisible,  whether  they  be 
thrones,  or  dominions,  or  principalities,  or  powers: 
all  things  were  created  by  Him  and  for  Him.  And 
He  is  before  all  things,  and  by  Him  all  things  con- 
sist." . 
There  are  three  leading  truths  suggested  by  the 

above  passage : 

1.  The  pre-existed  of  Christ.      "  He  is  before  all 
things"     If  Christ  created  the  world,  He  must  of 
necessity  be  older  than  the  world.     The  Creator  is 
necessarily  older  than  the  thing  created.    The  builder 
ofahousemustbeolderthanthehouse.     Long  before 
the  earth  began  to  revolve  on  its  axes,  long  before 
the  sun  began   to  shine,  long  before  the  first  star 
blossomed  in  the  blue  fields  of  heaven,  Christ  ex- 
isted in  the  full-orbed  glory  of  the  Godhead.  "From 
everlasting  to  everlasting  Thou  art  God."     "  And 
Thou,  Lord,  in  the  beginning  hast  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  earth;  and  the  heavens  are  the  works  of 
Thy  hands." 


156  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

2.  Christ  is  greater  than  the  universe.  The  maker 
is  necessarily  grander  than  the  things  made.  The 
architect  is  greater  than  the  building.  The  painter 
is  greater  than  his  picture.  The  author  is  grander 
than  his  book.  So  Christ  is  infinitely  greater  than 
the  universe.  He  is  greater  in  extent  and  grander 
in  power.  How  great  is  the  material  universe? 
The  earth  measuring  8,000  miles  in  diameter  and 
25,000  in  circumference,  with  its  lofty  mountains, 
spreading  seas,  and  vast  continents,  is  great  in  itself, 
but  compared  to  the  entire  universe,  it  is  but  a  leaf 
in  the  stupendous  forest  of  material  existence.  The 
sun,  warming  and  illuminating  our  world,  is  a  mil- 
lion and  a  half  times  larger  than  this  great  earth. 
He  enlightens  a  hundred  such  planets  as  ours,  and 
holds  them  steadily  in  the  hand  of  gravitation  as 
they  sweep  around  him  at  the  rate  of  3,000  miles  per 
minute.  He  pours  such  floods  of  light  upon  the 
earth  that  there  is  not  room  enough  to  contain  it. 
The  superfluity  of  his  splendor  runs  off  at  the  edges 
and  flames  upon  other  stars.  But  this  great  world 
of  flaming  fire  is  not  the  limit  of  the  universe.  The 
astronomical  telescope  shows  eighteen  million  such 
suns  to  be  shining  in  the  immensity  of  space. 
They  are  moving  around  the  great  central  orb 
which  astronomers  name  Alcyone.  This  central 
sun  is  located  in  the  cluster  commonly  known  as 
the  " seven  stars,"  which  Job  calls  the  "Pleiades." 
"  Canst  thou  bind  the  sweet  influences  of  Pleiades?" 
The  Chaldaic  word  in  the  original  literally  means  a 
hinge,  pivot,  ov  axle,  which  turns  round  and  moves 


Christ  as  a  Saviour.  157 

other  bodies  along  with  it.  The  moon  moves  round 
the  earth,  the  eartli  moves  round  the  sun,  and  the 
sun  with  his  attendant  planets  moves  round  Alcyone, 
the  great  central  sun  of  the  universe.  "  M.  Madler, 
of  Dorpat,  found  that  Alcyone,  the  brightest  star  of 
the  Pleiades,  is  the  center  of  gravity  of  our  vast  solar 
system— the  luminous  hinge  in  the  heavens  round 
which  our  sun  and  his  planets  are  moving  through 
space."  So  tremendous  is  the  force  of  Alcyone,  that 
it  seems  to  be  the  arch  key  which  holds  the  vast 
universe  together.  Its  influence  is  sweet  or  trans- 
cendently  precious,  because  without  it  the  physical 
system  would  tumble  into  ruin.  Grander  than  all 
these  magnificent  worlds,  stretching  over  immeas- 
urable  spaces,  is  Christ.  His  omnipotence  is  greater 
than  all  the  forces  of  nature.  The  wind  sweeping 
in  the  wild  rush  of  the  tornado,  the  lightning  shiv- 
ering the  sturdy  oak,  the  sea  tempest  tossing  great 
navies  high  on  its  rolling  billows  as  playthings,  the 
earthquake  lifting  huge  continents  on  its  giant 
shoulders,  are  but  feeble  pulsations  in  His  arm  of 
almighty  potency.  "  And  I  heard  .  .  .  the  voice  of 
mighty  thunderings,  saying,  Alleluia,  for  the  Lord 
God  omnipotent  reigneth." 

3.  Christ  is  the  owner  of  all  things.  "  All  things  were 
created  by  Him  and  for  Him."  There  can  be  no 
better  right  to  property  than  that  given  by  the  act 
of  creation.  From  nothing  Jesus  Christ  called  the 
material  world  into  existence.  Men  claim  the  right 
to  go!d  and  silver  upon  the  ground  of  finding  them. 
But  Christ  made  them  before  they  could  be  found. 


153  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

God's  ownership  of  all  property  is  perpetual,  inex- 
tinguishable and  under  all  circumstances  indispu- 
table and  supreme.  "  The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and 
the  fullness  thereof;  the  world  and  they  that 
dwell  therein."  Christ  is  the  great^  Proprietor  of  all 
things,  and  He  has  never  ceded  His  right  to  all  of 
earth's  wealth  to  men.  Man  is  only  a  steivard,  who 
holds  property  subject  to  the  will  of  the  great  Pro- 
prietor. What  a  man  produces  by  his  own  skill  and 
energy,  as  crops,  houses,  books,  &c,  he  claims  as  his 
property.  But  productions  are  not  creations.  They 
are  but  combinations  out  of  materials  and  forces 
which  God  put  into  his  hands.  God's  right  to  prop- 
erty rests  on  the  higher  ground  of  creation  and  com- 
bination. Besides,  man  is  the  servant  of  God,  and 
all  the  servant  makes  belongs  to  the  master. 

II.  The  creative  power  of  Christ  clearly  establishes 
His  Divinity,  and  out  of  His  Divinity  comes  His 
completeness  as  the  all-sufficient  Saviour  of  the 
world. 

Let  us  nowT  proceed  to  notice : 

1.  That  the  plan  of  salvation  is  complete  in  the  fact 
that  it  embraces  all  men  in  its  redemptive  provisions. 

Our  instinctive  feelings  would  lead  us  to  believe 
that  so  glorious  a  Person  as  Christ  would  not  be  sent 
on  a  partial  and  limited  mission  ;  that  supposing  Him 
to  visit  this  earth  and  agonize  in  blood  and  shame, 
He  would  embrace  the  whole  race  of  mankind  iii 
His  loving  mission.  And  especially,  when  it  is  well 
known  that  it  was  just  as  easy  to  redeem  the  whole 
of  the  world  as  a  part  of  it.     The  God  of  mankind 


Christ  as  a  Saviour. 

must  be  from  the  very  necessity  of  His  nature  a 
God  of  equal  justice  and  impartial  love.  He  gave 
all  men  unasked  their  existence:  will  He  cut  off 
millions  of  the  human  race,  after  they  had  fallen 
through  the  agency  of  another,  without  giving  them 
any  possible  chance  of  being  saved?  "Shall  not 
the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right  ?"  Yes,  He  will. 
For  the  Bible  positively  declares,  that  Christ  de- 
scended below  the  angels,  tliat  He,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
should  taste  death  for  every  man.  That  Christ  Jesus 
gave  Himself  a  ransom  for  all.  That  God  so  loved  the 
ivorld  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish.  The  entire  race  of 
mankind  is  redeemed.  Universal  redemption  is  a 
grand  and  glorious  reality.  The  scheme  of  salva- 
tion is  complete  in  its  scope;  it  encircles  the  entire 
world  in  its  arms  of  redeeming  love.  "God,  our 
Saviour,  *  *  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved."  "  The 
Lord  is  *   *    *  not  willing  that  any  should  perish." 

III.  The  completeness  of  Christianity  is  seefl 
when  we  consider  its  perfect  adaptation  to  all  p<rts 
of  man. 

1.  It  is  adapted  to  the  intellect. 

The  spirit  of  Christ  gives  clearness,  str^gth  and 
expansion  to  all  the  mental  faculties.  nhe intellect 
is  developed  and  strengthened  by  thejXercise  of  its 
powers  on  suitable  subjects.  No  pander  subjects 
can  be  found  than  those  presenter"  m  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  Christianity  is  an  €(lcator  of  men;  it 
teaches  them  to  think  And  t'inking  is  education. 
To  "educate"  means  to  leadjut  the  mind3  to  devel- 


160  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

ope  its  dormant  faculties  ;  and  this  is  what  the  gos- 
pel does.     The  Holy  Spirit  rouses  up  the  intellect, 
enobles  it  and  puts  it   to   thinking.     Just  as   the 
genial  warmth  of  the  vernal  sun  starts  the  roots  to 
growing,   the   buds   to   opening,  the  germs  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom  to  blooming,  so  the  celestial  fires 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  starts  the  intellect  of  the  world 
in  the  line  of  growth,  refinement  and  full  develop- 
ment.    The  great  thinkers  of  the  world  are  Christian 
men.     The  sublime  thoughts  of  Christ  have  put  the 
whole  world  to  thinking.     Four  out  of  every  five 
books  published  in  the  wide  -world   are   written  on 
some  theme  connected  with  Christianity.     The  lever 
now  moving  the  intellectual  world  is  the  religion  of 
Christ.     Christianity  exerts  a  great  influence  on  the 
sciences.     When  did  the  revival  of  science  and  lit- 
erature take  place  in  Europe?     Not  till  the  great 
reformation  of  Luther  stirred  the  dormant  intellect 
of  Germany.     The  doctrine  that  Christ,  the  Son  of 
-Righteousness,  was  the  great  central  orb  of  chris- 
tiaaity  suggested  the  scientific  discovery  of  our  ma- 
teria, sun  being  the  centre  of  the  planetary  system. 
Theologians  first  discovered  the  true  centre  of  the 
spiritual -vorld,  then  was  the  discovery  of  the  true 
centre  of  pKnets  made.     The  enlightening  influence 
of  the  gospeioOI1tjnues  to  be  the  moving  and  refin- 
ing power  of  nr,dern  civilization.     Where  does  the 
sun  of  intellectua^]ory  shine  to-day  ?    Why,  among 
those  nations  whicNjjayg  come  most  under  the  in- 
fluences of  christian^     Mental  dormancy  broods 
over  heathendom,  ovk  Mahometanism,  Buddhism 


Christ  as  a  Saviour. 

and  all  others  destitute  of  the  rousing  and  stirring 
truths  of  Christianity. 

2.  Christianity  is  adapted  to  the  will  of  man. 

The  will  being  that  faculty  in  man  which  is  per- 
sonal and  executive,  nothing  is  effected  till  this  is 
reached.  Any  religion  which  cannot  control  this 
power  of  man  is  a  failure;  but  Christianity  is  adapted 
to  control  the  will  from  the  grandeur  of  those  inter- 
ests which  it  presents.  Here  every  thing  takes  hold 
on  infinity  and  eternit}r.  The  motives  to  a  course 
of  piety  are  commanding;  the  motives  to  shun  evil 
are  terrific.  Its  language  is:  "  What  shall  it  profit 
a  man  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his 
own  soul ;  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange 
for  his  soul."  On  the  one  hand  is  placed  "  eternal 
life,"  on  the  other  is  the  "  blackness  of  darkness  for- 
ever." No  grander  motives  can  be  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  human  will  than  those  presented  in  the 
system  of  Christianity. 

3.  Christ  as  a  complete  Saviour,  is  meeting  perfectly 
all  the  wants  of  the  heart. 

The  human  heart  craves  to  love  something  that 
is  perfectly  lovety,  perfectly  excellent,  and  glorious. 
It  craves  to  fix  its  affections  on  some  living  embodi- 
ment of  transcendent  beauty — some  faultless  Being 
who  can  appreciate  and  reciprocate  the  love  which 
the  heart  feels.  The  beauty  of  pictures,  the  beauty 
of  stars,  the  beauty  of  the  rainbow,  the  beauty  of 
flowers,  will  not  satisfy  the  human  heart.  These 
are  too  coarse,  too  gross,  too  material,  too  unlike  the 
soul  to  satisfy  its  aspirations.     The  cry  of  the  human 


162  North  Carolina  Sermons. 

heart  is  that  of  Philip,  when  he  said  :  "  Lord  show 
us  the  Father  and  it  sufficeth  us."  Divine  beauty  only 
€an  satisfy  the  heart ;  and  Christ  recognized  this 
■demand  and  replied  :  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath 
Been  the  Father."  Christ  is  the  "  brightness  of  His 
glory,  and  the  express  imago  of  His  person."  "We 
beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten 
of  the  Father.'*'  "  He  is  the  fairest  among  ten  thou* 
sand  and  the  One  altogether  lovely."  And  David 
said  :  "I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  in  thy  like- 
ness." "  One  thing  have  I  desired  of  the  Lord,  that 
will  I  seek  after  *  *  *  to  behold  the  beauty  of  the 
Lord."  The  beauty-loving  element  of  man  will  be 
fully  satisfied  in  heaven  when  "  Thine  eyes  shall  see 
the  King  in  His  beauty." 

4.  He  is  complete  as  a  Saviour  in  being  so  grand  as  to 
take  in  the  rvhole  capacity  of  mail's  loving  nature. 

Being  incomplete  in  ourselves  we  seek  to  draw 
completeness  from  another.  The  heart  demands  an 
absorbing  object  of  worship ;  something  so  great  as 
to  swallow  up  its  full  powers.  When  the  object 
loved  is  too  small  the  loving  heart  must  turn  back 
upon  itself  or  else  go  out  in  search  of  a  new  object 
of  affection.  Such  is  the  vastness  of  the  soul,  so 
immense  is  the  reach  of  its  aspiration,  so  excursive 
its  roaming  desires,  that  no  earthly  good  can  fill  it 
Man  is  always  progressive ;  seeking  something  be- 
yond the  present.  Conquering  the  whole  world 
does  not  satisfy  the  ambition  of  Alexander.  Moun- 
tains of  gold  do  not  satisfy  the  wealth-loving  heart* 


Date  Due 


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SEP  2  5   7fe 


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L.  B.  Cat.  No.  1 137 


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